From Military Geography to militarism's geographies: disciplinary engagements with the geographies of militarism and military activities (original) (raw)
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Geography, military geography and critical military studies.
This paper is about the distinctive contributions which contemporary military geography might make to the wider critical military studies project. The paper notes the relative absence of the study of military topics across Anglophone human geography in the second half of the twentieth century, and the resurgence of interest in the spatialities of militarism and military activities over the past decade or so in tandem with the emergence of critical geography. The paper then goes on to examine three key tropes of geographical inquiry to illustrate how a critical military studies alert to spatiality might develop further. These are geography's rich tradition of research and writing about landscape, geography's engagement with concepts of representation, and geography's theorizing on scale. The paper argues that a geographically informed critical military studies can be illuminating on matters of war and militarism because of its attention to the located, situated, and constitutive natures of military power and its effects. The paper concludes with a reflexive commentary on what critical military studies might take from ongoing debates in human geography about the necessity of engagement and co-inquiry with research subjects, when a focus on military topics raises ethical questions about collaboration. We argue that transparency, accountability, and awareness of the multiple and complex politics of academic inquiry are necessarily part of the wider critical military studies project.
A genealogy of military geographies: Complicities, entanglements, and legacies
Geography Compass
This paper argues that historical geography is particularly well positioned to make insightful contributions to military geographies and critical military studies more broadly because of its commitment to critically exploring the genealogies and consequences of military violence, which are too often seen as a given or historically non-contingent. This is demonstrated by a review of existing literature which variously acknowledges the emergence of disciplinary geography in concert with the modern military, traces the contributions of geographers to and their entanglements with the military, and, which accounts for the complicities, consequences and legacies of military activities and violence through an historical lens. The paper reveals how historical geography exposes the knowledges, technologies and lives that produce and are shaped by military activities as being spatially and temporally specific. Further, its suggests future directions for historical geography that would extend and expand the discipline's attempts to more fully acknowledge the place of military geographies in our histories, politics, spatialities, cultures and everyday lives.
Parallel Landscapes: A spatial and critical study of militarised sites in the United Kingdom
There are currently 548 declared military facilities in the United Kingdom, located on 372,000 hectares of military-owned or used land. Collectively known as the defence estate, this land is used for defence and training, and constitutes approximately 1.5% of the UK surface area. The research presented here interprets this landscape and its accompanying airspaces, infrastructures and processes as a spatial phenomenon, one which is in an almost constant state of flux. This thesis is, therefore, a study of militarised space in the UK as defined by recent developments in technology, mobility and communication. It analyses the processes by which land and space become militarised within different environments and the residual effects of this on the wider fabric of civil society.
The geontological time-spaces of late modern war
Progress in Human Geography, 2021
Attending to connections between serious health conditions (cancers and congenital disorders) and weapons residues in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza, this article develops a geographical agenda for examining power in late modern war from the perspective of the ground and the life it sustains. A case is made for understanding the time-spaces of war as not compressed, vertical or remote but enduring, pedospheric and proximate in which violence emerges through processes (carcinogenic and teratogenic) that transcend boundaries between 'life' (bios) and 'nonlife' (geos). Such are the geontological time-spaces of late modern war that geographersin both 'physical' and 'human' sub-fieldsare uniquely equipped to examine.
Military Geography in the Context of Geographic Determinism
2020
The influence of geographic factors on the society as well as on different social realities had special importance within the whole history of social-philosophical thought. From this perspective, the theory of geographic determinism has emerged as an essential conception. The supporters of this theory paid special attention to the geographic factors demonstrating and underlining the importance of their place and role in the process of formation and development of various social phenomena. This article mainly focuses on the place and role of military geography in the study, organization, and modelling of social processes.
Varieties of Militarism: Towards a Typology
Security Dialogue, 2018
Militarism—a mercurial, endlessly contested concept—is experiencing a renaissance of sorts in many corners of the social science community. In critical security studies, the concept's purview has become increasingly limited by an abiding theoretical and analytical focus on various practices of securitisation. We argue that there is a need to clarify the logic and stakes of different forms of militarism. Critical security scholars have provided valuable insights into the conditions of 'exceptionalist militarism.' However, if we accept that militarism and the production of security are co-constitutive, then we have every reason to consider different manifestations of militarism, their historical trajectories and their interrelationships. To that end, we draw on the work of historical sociologists and articulate three more ideal types of militarism: nation-state militarism, civil society militarism, and neoliberal militarism. We suggest this typology can more adequately capture key transformations of militarism in the modern period as well as inform further research on the militarism-security nexus.
War and Geography: Introduction
An Australian soldier stands overlooking Mt. Gillen and the Todd River, with Alice Springs in the centre of the picture. Australian War Memorial, ID 005112
2011
As our planet urbanizes more rapidly than ever before, a new and insidious militarism is permeating the fabric of cities and urban life. Fuelled by, and perpetuating, the extreme inequalities that have mushroomed as neoliberal globalisation has extended across the world, this new military urbanism is a constellation of ideas, techniques and norms of security and military doctrine.
ACTA 2023 - War and the City: The Effects of Armed Conflicts on Urban Space and Population, 2024
As the Turkish Commission of Military History and the Turkish National Defense University, we were honored to host the 48th International Congress of the International Commission of Military History in İstanbul between 3-8 September 2023. This congress had historical importance for us as it coincided with the centenary of the establishment of the Republic of Türkiye. With 140 participants from 29 countries, the congress featured an extensive academic program organized into 14 parallel sessions over four days. 53 scholars presented their research, contributing to a vibrant exchange of ideas. Beyond the academic sessions, a rich cultural program provided participants with the opportunity to experience Istanbul’s unique historical and cultural heritage, a city that has long been a crossroads of civilizations and the capital of empires. The congress’s theme, “War and the City: The Effects of Armed Conflicts on Urban Space and Population” addressed the evolving relationship between warfare and urban environments. Historically, this relationship was characterized by gradual change, but the 19th century witnessed a marked acceleration in transformation due to the increasing complexity of warfare. Technological advancements played a pivotal role in this evolution. Lind’s four-generation framework for understanding warfare is instrumental in contextualizing and analyzing these changes. The first generation, characterized by ancient battles with basic military equipment and tactics, had limited impact on civilians and cities. The second generation, with innovations such as new weapons and compulsory military service, saw increased effects on urban spaces and populations, lasting until WWII. The third and fourth generations, representing modern warfare, emerged during WWII. The advent of air power extended the battlefield beyond traditional front lines, significantly increasing the impact on civilians and urban areas. Cities and their inhabitants became direct military targets to undermine enemy morale and disrupt tactics. Unconventional tactics, including terrorism and proxy wars, further blurred lines between civilians and combatants, highlighting the profound and lasting effects of armed conflicts on urban areas. These developments underscore the profound and lasting effects of armed conflicts on urban spaces and populations.
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Military Occupations: Methodological Approaches and the Military-Academy Research Nexus
Sociology Compass, 2011
Military occupations are continually evolving in relation to the geopolitical changes of societies, their conflicts and conflict management strategies, and technological developments in military hardware and software. Military occupations studies undertaken by the academy have been key to informing government strategy towards the maintenance of functioning armed forces. Since the 1950s, such studies have prioritised 'top-down' quantitative sociological methodologies. This paper reviews these studies and the role of the dominant Institutional ⁄ Occupational model. The paper then considers less influential 'bottom up' interpretive methodological studies of military occupations. It is suggested that the reliance on 'top down' modelling approaches has led to the paucity of studies describing the range and experiential detail of military occupations. The Military-Academy nexus, and the priorities of the discipline of sociology are suggested as reasons for this emphasis.
Geography, military geography, and critical military studies
Critical Military Studies, 2014
This paper is about the distinctive contributions which contemporary military geography might make to the wider critical military studies project. The paper notes the relative absence of the study of military topics across Anglophone human geography in the second half of the twentieth century, and the resurgence of interest in the spatialities of militarism and military activities over the past decade or so in tandem with the emergence of critical geography. The paper then goes on to examine three key tropes of geographical inquiry to illustrate how a critical military studies alert to spatiality might develop further. These are geography's rich tradition of research and writing about landscape, geography's engagement with concepts of representation, and geography's theorizing on scale. The paper argues that a geographically informed critical military studies can be illuminating on matters of war and militarism because of its attention to the located, situated, and constitutive natures of military power and its effects. The paper concludes with a reflexive commentary on what critical military studies might take from ongoing debates in human geography about the necessity of engagement and co-inquiry with research subjects, when a focus on military topics raises ethical questions about collaboration. We argue that transparency, accountability, and awareness of the multiple and complex politics of academic inquiry are necessarily part of the wider critical military studies project.
Looking at Military Landscapes: Definitions and Approaches
Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, 2014
This chapter explores how military landscapes have been conceptualised and understood. The chapter starts by defining what is meant by the terms 'landscape' and 'military'. The chapter then proceeds with an exploration of a range of examples from a variety of disciplinary origins in order to support the argument that military landscapes constitute a diversity of sites and have a ubiquity of occurrence. Such examples include battlefields and other sites of conflict, the interconnections between landscapes and the pursuit of specific campaigns and conflicts, the issue of environmental impacts of military activities and the interpretation of these with reference to the specificity of landscapes, and landscapes of memory and military memorialization. The chapter then goes on to consider how military landscapes can be viewed, raising questions about the visibility and invisibility of such sites. The chapter concludes with some observations about the imperative for sustained scholarly attention to military landscapes, in order to inform debates about militarism as a social force.
Book Review: Geopiracy: Oaxaca, Militant Empiricism, and Geographical Thought
Human Geography
This book review symposium interrogates Joel Wainwright's recent text Geopiracy: Oaxaca, Militant Empiricism, and Geographical Thought (Palgrave Macillan 2013). Overtly, this text is a scathing critique of the Bowman Expeditions, launched in 2006 with several million dollars of funding from the Foreign Military Study Office (FMSO) of the US Army. Two years later, and well into the first expedition in Oaxaca, Mexico, several groups from Oaxaca responded, accusing the Bowman Expedition of “Geopiracy” and of tricking the indigenous communities involved. In mounting a robust critique of the Bowman Expeditions, in this text Wainwright simultaneously takes on several other pressing issues in the discipline of geography, among them the militarization of geography, power, ethics, transparency and consent in fieldwork, the supposed objectivity and value-less-ness of mapping, and the tepid response to the Bowman controversy mustered by the AAG. In this review symposium a diverse group of ...
An assemblage approach to liquid warfare: AFRICOM and the ‘hunt’ for Joseph Kony
Security Dialogue
The Western state-led turn to remote forms of military intervention as recently deployed in the Middle East and across Africa is often explained as resulting from risk aversion (avoidance of ground combat), materiality (‘the force of matter’) or the adoption of a networked operational logic by major military powers, mimicking the ‘hit-and-run’ tactics of their enemies. Although recognizing the mobilizing capacities of these phenomena, we argue that the new military interventionism is prompted by a more fundamental transformation, grounded in the spatial and temporal reconfiguration of war. We see a resort to ‘liquid warfare’ as a form of military interventionism that shuns direct control of territory and populations and its cumbersome order-building and order-maintaining responsibilities, focusing instead on ‘shaping’ the international security environment through remote technology, flexible operations and military-to-military partnerships. We draw upon assemblage as a heuristic dev...
A genealogy of military geographies: Complicities, entanglements, and legacies
Geography Compass
This paper argues that historical geography is particularly well positioned to make insightful contributions to military geographies and critical military studies more broadly because of its commitment to critically exploring the genealogies and consequences of military violence, which are too often seen as a given or historically non-contingent. This is demonstrated by a review of existing literature which variously acknowledges the emergence of disciplinary geography in concert with the modern military, traces the contributions of geographers to and their entanglements with the military, and, which accounts for the complicities, consequences and legacies of military activities and violence through an historical lens. The paper reveals how historical geography exposes the knowledges, technologies and lives that produce and are shaped by military activities as being spatially and temporally specific. Further, its suggests future directions for historical geography that would extend and expand the discipline's attempts to more fully acknowledge the place of military geographies in our histories, politics, spatialities, cultures and everyday lives.
Progress in Human Geography, 2013
This first of three progress reports on the subdiscipline of political geography reviews recent scholarship on the transformation of geographies of sovereignty. The piece offers a review of major analytical themes that have emerged in recent geographical analyses of sovereignty. These themes include the design of spatial metaphors through which to conceptualize sovereignty, US exceptionalism and the influence of Agamben’s work, productive blurring of onshore and offshore operations and productions of sovereign power, and debate about the kinds of power operating through these newly constituted global topographies of power. The text also visits five kinds of sites where contemporary struggles over sovereignty manifest: prison, island, sea, body, and border. After reviewing recent trends, themes, and locations in studies of sovereign power, recommendations for future research topics are made.
The New Political Economy of Geographical Intelligence
Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2013
A troubling new political economy of geographical intelligence emerged in the United States over the last two decades. The contours of this new political economy are difficult to identify due to official policies keeping much relevant information secret. The US intelligence community increasingly relies on private corporations, working as contractors, to undertake intelligence work, including geographical intelligence (formally known as GEOINT). In this paper we first describe the geography intelligence "contracting nexus" consisting of tens of thousands of companies (including those in the GIS and mapping sector), universities and non-profits receiving Department of Defense and intelligence agency funding. Second, we discuss the "knowledge nexus" to conceptualize the way geographical knowledge figures in current US intelligence efforts, themselves part of the US's war on terror and counterinsurgency (COIN). To analyze the contracting nexus we compiled and examined extensive data on military and intelligence contracts, especially those contracts awarded by the country's premier geographical intelligence agency, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) for satellite data. To analyze the knowledge nexus we examined recent changes in the type of geographical knowledges enrolled in and produced by the US intelligence community. We note a shift from an emphasis on areal and cultural expertise to a focus on calculative predictive spatial analysis in geographical intelligence. Due to a lack of public oversight and accountability, the new political economy of geographical intelligence is not easy to research, yet there are reasons to be troubled by it and the violent surveillant state it supports.
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2019
The emergence of air power as the pre-eminent method of warfare prompted a decision, made at the highest level, to form a new arm of the British military. The Central Landing Establishment was founded as parachuting headquarters in 1940, and tasked with developing and implementing the means for training and delivering airborne forces to the ground. With woeful shortfalls in aerial knowledge, experimentation proved crucial. The paper examines the recruitment and synthetic ground training of the British Parachute Regiment at Ringway Aerodrome (1940-1946), and their experimental exchanges with "specialists" in the art of falling. More specifically, in the absence of a recognised landing technique, and with associated high injury rates, Ringway turned to movement theorist Rudolf Laban to advance its embodied aerial practice. The paper will explore how militaries have long recognised the centrality of such embodied and aesthetic regimes to the doing of geopolitics. In particular, it foregrounds the multifaceted, micro-bodily practicesoperating through complex interconnected spatialitiesthat comprise the waging of war. In turn, it asserts the significance of the aesthetic in understanding how geopolitics takes place and is implemented in the world. In doing so, the paper unpacks the "art" within the art of war.
Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, 2018
In this article, I describe automatically linking newly accessible census data and World War I service records to enable a more holistic accounting of the connections between individual military experiences and emergent civilian population patterns. Employing models that can only be built from the individual level and examining relationships that are only traceable through linked data, I analyze how soldiers' wartime experiences may have inflected postwar marital outcomes and explore how linkage decisions shape results. In so doing, I show how quantitative methods can be used to question the adequacy of traditional WWI narratives, and provide an example of how, even with limited resources, the usefulness of historical microdatasets can be leveraged through record linkage.
An examination of student veteran education pathways at an American university
Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 2018
Military veterans are enrolling in higher education at the highest rates since the Second World War. This research seeks to examine how military experiences related to student experiences within the discipline of Geography. We use a survey instrument to measure student motivations, attitudes, and aspirations for declared Geography majors. Given a high presence of military connected students, we then examine the similarities and differences in motivations, attitudes, and aspirations between military connected and non-military students. Findings suggest that there are similarities between military and non-military students with regard to motivating factors for selecting Geography as a major, there are differences with regards to attitudes towards cultural geography, and differences in how students perceive their future interactions with the environment. Differences in demographics and travel experiences also are identified and likely contribute to shaping undergraduate geography experiences. The results offer useful insight on current Geography student needs, and assist faculty and departments in tailoring learning based on student experience.
Dialogues in Human Geography, 2020
This article is based on the 2019 Dialogues in Human Geography plenary lecture at the Royal Geographical Society. It has four parts. The first discusses my work on territory in relation to recent work by geographers and others on the vertical, the volumetric, the voluminous, and the milieu as ways of thinking space in three-dimensions, of a fluid and dynamic earth. Second, it proposes using the concept of terrain to analyse the political materiality of territory. Third, it adds some cautions to this, through thinking about the history of the concept of terrain in geographical thought, which has tended to associate it with either physical or military geography. Finally, it suggests that this work is a way geographers might begin to respond to the challenge recently made by Bruno Latour, where he suggests that ‘belonging to a territory is the phenomenon most in need of rethinking and careful redescription; learning new ways to inhabit the Earth is our biggest challenge’. Responding to...
Critical Military Studies, 2019
Set against the backdrop of the British Government's Future Reserves 2020 (FR2020) programme, this article addresses military reservists' experiences of how they are perceived by civilian colleagues in the workplace. Drawing on qualitative interviews with reservists, it analyses their understandings of civilian co-workers' qualified and sometimes reluctant acceptance in light of FR2020's implicit aim to use reservists to help realign civil-military relationships. While it appears that civilian work colleagues' social distancing of reservists helps consolidate the wider public's perceived lack of understanding of the British armed forces, a more critical view sees reservists' largely unchallenged presence in the workplace as an exemplary, yet subtle instance of militarization. This is because reservists' simultaneous (physical) inclusion and (social) distancing or stigmatization constitutes, and is constitutive of, their need to pass as civilian. In conclusion, we argue that a key implication of their passing as civilian is to neutralize debate of the legitimacyor otherwiseof the armed forces as an institution tasked with violence on behalf of the state.