Mahan carried to the planetary level the principle of "anacondas", applied by the American General McClellan in the North American Civil War of 1861 1865. This principle consists in blocking enemy territories from the sea and along coastlines, which gradually leads to strategic exhaustion of the enemy. Since Mahan believed that the state’s power is determined by its potential for becoming the Sea Force, in case of confrontation, strategic number one task is to prevent this formation in the enemy’s camp. Consequently, the task of the historical confrontation of America is to strengthen its positions on 6 main points (listed above) and weaken the enemy on the same points. Your coastal spaces should be in control,and the corresponding zones of the enemy should be tried by any means to tear off the continental mass. And further: since the Monroe doctrine (in its part of territorial integration) strengthens the power of the state, the creation of similar integration formations in the enemy should not be allowed. On the contrary, the opponent or rival in the case of Mahan, the Eurasian powers (Russia, China, Germany) should strangle the continental mass in the rings of the "anaconda", squeezing it at the expense of the coastal zones removed from its control and blocking, if possible, access to the sea.