Overview

WEBSTER'S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY DEFINES GEOGRAPHY AS "A SCIENCE THAT DEALS WITH the Earth and its life; especially the description of land, sea, air, and the distribution of plant and animal life including man and his industries with reference to the mutual relations of these diverse elements." The next edition likely will add space to the list. Geography consequently embraces a spectrum of physical and social sciences from agronomy to zoology. In simple terms, it describes what the environment is like at any given place and time.

Military geography, one of several subsets within those broad confines, concentrates on the influence of physical and cultural environments over political-military policies, plans, programs, and combat/support operations of all types in global, regional, and local contexts. Key factors displayed in table 1 directly (sometimes decisively) affect the full range of military activities: strategies, tactics, and doctrines; command, control, and organizational structures; the optimum mix of land, sea, air, and space forces; intelligence collection; targeting; research and development; the procurement and allocation of weapons, equipment, and clothing; plus supply, maintenance, construction, medical support, education, and training.¹

Spatial relationships, arguably the most fundamental of all geographic factors, concern the location, size, and shape of land areas, together with the presence and configuration of intervening waters. Relative positions and modes of transportation determine transit times between any two sites. Total length, width, and area determine the amount of maneuver room available and the relative security or vulnerability of key points within any piece of militarily important property.

Land forms constitute the stage whereon military pageants play ashore. Relief, drainage patterns, geology, and soils are pertinent topics. High-level strategists, airmen, and astronauts see mountains and valleys, plateaus and lowland plains. Frontline soldiers, who deal with details instead of big pictures, have vastly different viewpoints--hummocks, gullies, river banks and bottoms loom large from their foreshortened perspectives. Bill Mauldin put it best in his book Up Front when dogface Willie sitting in a shell crater said to Joe, "Th' hell this ain't the most important hole in th' world. I'm in it."²

Physical Factors		Cultural Factors
Spatial Relationships		Racial and Ethnic Roots
Topography and Drainage		Population Patterns
Geology and Soils		Social Structures
Vegetation		Languages and Religions
Oceans and Seashores		Industries and Land Use
Weather and Climate		Transportation Networks
Daylight and Darkness		Telecommunications
Gravity and Magnetism		Military Installations

Natural vegetation varies from lush to nearly nonexistent. Treeless tundra, the coniferous taiga that blankets much of Siberia, tropical rain forests, elephant grass, scrub, and cacti create drastically different military environments. Bonneville's salt encrusted flats and Okefenokee Swamp both are basically horizontal, but the former is bare while the latter is luxuriant. The Sahara Desert, sere except for widely scattered oases, bears scant resemblance to the densely wooded Arakan Range in Burma, where the height and spacing of trees, trunk diameters, stem densities, foliage, and duff (rotting materials on the floor) are cogent military considerations.

Mariners properly contend that the importance of oceans is almost impossible to overstate, since water covers almost three-fourths of the Earth's surface--the Pacific Ocean alone exceeds the area of all continents and islands combined. Seas and large lakes, typified by the Caribbean, Caspian, and Mediterranean, separate or subdivide major land masses. Waves, tides, currents, water temperatures, and salinity everywhere limit options open to surface ships and submarines. Straits, channels, reefs, and other topographical features do likewise along littorals.

Earth's atmosphere envelops armed forces everywhere aloft, ashore, and afloat. Temperatures, precipitation in the form of rain, hail, ice, sleet, or snow, winds, and relative humidity, along with daylight and darkness, command close attention because they strongly affect the timing, conduct, and support of peacetime and combat operations. Stiff penalties accompany failure to heed their implications. History has repeatedly witnessed armies mired in mud axle-deep to a ferris wheel, fleets blown off course like the ill-fated Spanish Armada, and bombers as flightless as goonie birds, grounded by gales or fog.

Inner and outer space constitutes a fourth distinctive geographic medium, along with land, sea, and air. Only a tiny fraction thus far has been exploited for military purposes, but operations farther afield for many imaginative purposes are conceivable within a relatively short time frame.

People top the list of cultural considerations that deserve close attention for political-military reasons. Census statistics reveal population size, distribution, age groups, the percentage of males compared with females, and urban versus rural densities. Other militarily important characteristics include native intelligence, languages, dialects, literacy, customs, beliefs, patriotism, attitudes toward "outsiders" (indifference, respect, resentment, hostility), discipline, morale, temperament (passive or aggressive), and the prevalence of endemic diseases. Virgil singled out the will to win with these words in his Eclogues VII 2,000 years ago: "It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be."

Relations among racial, ethnic, tribal, and religious groups merit special attention, because alienation often leads to armed conflict. Immense psychological significance attends some cultural icons, such as shrines, national cemeteries, other hallowed ground, even entire cities. A former Commanding General of NATO's Central Army Group repeatedly told his subordinates, "If we go to war against the Warsaw Pact tomorrow we can't allow the first day's headline to read 'Nürnberg Falls,' because the blow to allied morale would be devastating."

Natural resources, land use, and industries, which underpin combat capabilities and the staying power of friends as well as foes, contribute essentially to national security. Food is the irreducible foundation, followed by raw materials and facilities for converting them to usable goods. Basic ingredients feature, but by no means are confined to, agriculture, animal husbandry, and fisheries; minerals and metals; petroleum, electrical, and nuclear power; water supplies; manufacturing plants; stone, brick, concrete, lumber, and other construction staples. Only a few nations now possess the economic potential for great military power. None is wholly self-sufficient, thus external sources of sustenance and degrees of control over them are geographically consequential.

Transportation networks expedite or impede abilities of statesmen and military commanders to employ armed forces intercontinentally, regionally, or locally. Roads, railways, inland waterways, airfields, and seaports, conveniently located in proper combinations, enable formations of requisite size and type to reach objective areas promptly from distant staging bases, then maneuver effectively. Land, sea, and air lanes that hamper abilities to do so raise the cost of mission accomplishment in terms of time, lives, and money expended. Severe deficiencies may even render requisite military actions infeasible because, as wags are wont to say, "You can't get there from here."

Telecommunication systems (radio, television, telephone, telegraph, space communication satellites, the internet, and submarine cables) facilitate integrated action by uniservice, joint, and multinational armed forces. The type, attributes, and geographic distribution of military and civilian fixed-plant facilities in foreign countries accordingly interest commanders and staffs who hope to use those assets and deny them to enemies. Central offices, substations, transmission lines, repeaters, transfer points, alternative routings, redundant capabilities, power sources, and maintenance installations are prime concerns.

Geographic regions on Earth and in space are reasonably homogeneous areas containing distinctive topography, climate, vegetation, and cultural features (or lack thereof) that exert relatively uniform effects on military policies, plans, programs, and operations. Several classification systems are in competition. One accentuates surface configurations that may be hilly or horizontal, smooth or serrated, on land or under the sea. Others attach climatic labels: arctic, subarctic, temperate, and tropical or cold-wet, cold-dry, hot-wet, hot-dry, each accompanied by distinctive fauna and flora.³

Geographic regions suitable for military operations sometimes are stacked vertically. Hannibal's army and elephant train traversed cultivated fields at low elevations before they climbed through deciduous forests, a band of evergreens, meadows above the tree line, and expanses of bare rock when they navigated the Alps en route from Gaul to Italia as winter approached in 218 B.C. Temperature gradients were as steep as the slopes, mild near the base but frigid in the Col de la Traversette Pass at 10,000 feet (3,050 meters), where winds were wild and snow already lay deep. The entire entourage, being unacclimated, must have gasped for breath from exertions in thin air near the top.⁴ Spacecraft crews become familiar with five geographic regions stacked one above the other as they fly through the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere en route to circumterrestrial space about 60 miles (95 kilometers) above Earth, where aerodynamic drag and frictional heat lose most of their significance.⁵

Armed forces expressly prepared for employment in any given environment normally function less well elsewhere until they complete time-consuming and costly transitions. They must become familiar with new topography, climatic conditions, and social systems, modify their techniques, then tailor weapons, equipment, clothing, and supplies to suit the situation. Formations optimized for warfare in rain forests prepare to cope with heat, humidity, leaches, and insects. Dehydration and tropical diseases may cause more casualties than enemy ammunition if troops fail to take proper precautions. Poorly maintained weapons malfunction from rust and molds. Foot soldiers in lightweight uniforms that blend well with surroundings take precedence over tanks and trucks, aerial reconnaissance is severely restricted, small unit tactics predominate. Formations optimized for cold climes in contrast require white parkas, mittens, and insulated boots; lined sleeping bags; skis, snowshoes, snowmobiles, and sleds; tents with stoves; antifreezes; low-viscosity lubricants; hot meals with high caloric contents; and retraining.⁶

Navies fully prepared for "blue water" warfare must modify modi operandi along continental shelves, where adversaries ashore as well as afloat can take advantage of short flight times for aircraft and antiship missiles to strike with minimum warning. Mines, minisubmarines, and "frogmen" are other potential menaces. Maneuver room along littorals is often limited. Sensors and communication systems able to work effectively in coastal waters must supplement or replace those designed for use in, on, or over deep seas. Differentiation of friends from foes poses complex problems where civilian and military air and sea traffic mingle.⁷

Military regions and political boundaries seldom coincide. Most nations consequently contain two or more geographic subdivisions that complicate planning, preparations, and operations. Jungles and swamps by no means blanket Vietnam; the Pleiku Plateau, for example, is made to order for armor. Austria is by no means all alpine. Cultural factors often introduce militarily important inconsistencies within regions that are topographically and climatically coherent. Saudi Arabia harbors urban oases in an otherwise nearly empty nation that is everywhere arid and displays only a handful of prominent physiographic features other than mountains along the Red Sea coast.

Policymakers, strategists, and tacticians can expect unpleasant surprises whenever they overlook the fact that many geographic factors fluctuate in response to seasonal, cyclical, or random change. Nuclear combat, however restrained, could instantaneously turn urban battlefields into rubble, transitions from night to day alter radio propagation characteristics, and sunspots periodically cause high frequency blackouts. Viet Cong sanctuaries lost much of their utility when defoliants reduced concealment. Ice transforms unbridgeable bodies of water into arterial highways (trains have crossed bits of the Baltic Sea in wintertime), and wheels are welcome in frozen fens. Forces oriented north to south often find themselves in topographically different worlds than those facing east to west, while switches from defense to attack may cause obstacles to loom where protective barriers stood before. Streams that flood without warning can frustrate even the best laid plans, as U.S. Army engineers in Bosnia discovered in December 1995, when it took a week longer than anticipated to build a pontoon bridge over the raging Sava River, suddenly swollen by melting snow. Rising waters inundated adjacent tent cities occupied by troops waiting to cross from Croatia to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Casualties were confined to those caused by dampness coupled with bone-chilling weather, but only because the tactical situation was benign.⁸

History is replete with prominent commanders who sorrowfully assumed that enemy area analyses would mimic their own. New Carthage fell to Rome's Scipio Africanus during the Second Punic War when his vanguard waded a lagoon at low water to reach and scale a city wall that Hannibal's brother, Mago, fecklessly left unprotected.⁹ British General Wolfe's forces captured Quebec in 1759 after they climbed cliffs that the French defender, Marquis de Montcalm, guarded too lightly.¹⁰ Japanese columns landed on the Malay Peninsula well north of Singapore in December 1941, then penetrated presumably impassable mangrove swamps to reach the city, which fell the following February, partly because the heavy artillery of British defenders all pointed seaward.¹¹ German Panzers poured through the Ardennes almost unopposed in May 1940, after Marshal Henri Pétain proclaimed that forest "impenetrable," and did so again during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, because U.S. strategists learned little from Pétain's lesson.¹²

Leaders who flunk elementary map reading courses or lack much feel for clime and terrain are prone to make geographic miscalculations. General Henri Navarre unwisely staked the future of France in Asia on the defense of indefensible Dien Bien Phu (1954), an isolated Indochinese basin that was far from the nearest support base, was sustainable only by air, and was dominated by forbidding terrain.¹³ Ill-fated operations at the Bay of Pigs (April 1961) caused repercussions that reached the White House when incompetent U.S. planners put anti-Castro "freedom fighters" ashore in an alligator-filled marsh that had only one major route inland.¹⁴

It is worth remembering that human factors often may be more cogent than physical geography. Che Guevara, once a guru on guerrilla warfare, almost literally committed suicide in Bolivia, largely because he misread the cultural context. What logic could explain "an Argentinian out of Cuba by way of the Congo in the wilds of the Bolivian jungles memorizing the verbs of the wrong Indian language in order to convert a people, already possessing land, whose vision for endless centuries had turned inward?"¹⁵ Far from being a fish in a sea of people, as revolutionary warriors advocated, he was a fish out of water. He paid with his life for geographic ignorance.

Geographic factors become fully significant politically and militarily only when related to probable effects on friendly and enemy courses of action and assigned missions (attack, defend, delay, withdraw, and so on) during nuclear, conventional, and unconventional conflicts as well as operations other than war typified by shows of force, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, peacekeeping, search and rescue, counternarcotics, and counterterrorism. Analyses also vary with forces available (combat and support, land, sea, air, amphibious, and space). Countless questions require answers, as the following samples illustrate:

A convenient framework for area analyses fortunately is available. Mnemonic devices line up war fighting factors to form the acronym COCOA:

Others prefer OCOKA, in which the K stands for key terrain. Neither sequence seems logical, but all five considerations in either case stand ready for inspection. The area analysis format also addresses geographic effects on logistics, civil affairs, and other relevant matters before relating the whole lot first to options that enemies might adopt, then to friendly courses of action.

Such analyses are perishable. Astute users employ them posthaste or update periodically to guarantee that facts, assumptions, interpretations, and findings remain valid with regard to environmental conditions and ongoing events. Inconsistencies send them back to their drawing boards.

One U.S. four-star officer, after reading the foregoing in first draft, said, "I need to know how the rest of this book will serve as a practical guide." His request was easy to answer. Armed combat and military operations other than war may be games that anyone can play, but they are not games that just anyone can play well. Only gifted participants win prizes. Long experience indicates that, all else being equal, military practitioners and their civilian supervisors who purposefully make geography work for them are winners more often than not, whereas those who lack sound appreciation for the significance of geography succeed only by accident. There are no hard and fast rules that impose stiff fines for infractions, and universally applicable "school solutions" are scarce, but topic headings and historical examples in each succeeding chapter of this treatise could serve as intellectual checklists and tools to help readers arrive at sound judgments, provided they recognize that no two situations are precisely alike.