Military Geography in Afghanistan: A Compartive Geospatial Analysis of the Soviet War and Operation Enduring Freedom
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- September 22, 2022
- Creator
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Farley, Matthew Lee
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense
- Abstract
- According to Colonel and Professor of Military Geography, Eugene Palka’s, Modern Military Geography “Military Geography is the application of geographic information, tools, and techniques to military problems.” Historically, military geography has been applied primarily to decisive battles or wars, limiting the scope of its effectiveness. Recently, geographers have extended geographic analysis and principles to unconventional military scenarios. Many geography scholars advocate analysis of geography to support peacetime and support operations. This paper will push this proposition even farther to suggest retroactive geographic analysis of conflict zones. Geography and military geography can be divided into the subfields of Physical and Human Geography. Physical Geography examines the physical make up of an area including its climate, topography, land forms, soil content, location, and borders. Human Geography focuses on groupings of different cultural characteristics within an area. Geography is a constant in the world, it may change over time, but its impact is always present. What is called into question is whether or not that impact is as consistent as the geography it derives from; especially its impact on conflict. Afghanistan provides an opportunity to test this question. Afghanistan has been in almost a constant state of conflict since the Soviet Invasion of 1979. The conflict in Afghanistan, while continuous, has varied in participation, combatants, casualties, intensities, and destructiveness. The Soviet Invasion and Occupation was followed by the Afghan Civil War, which was in turn, followed by the Coalition invasion of Afghanistan as a part of Operation Enduring Freedom. While the three conflicts vary considerably, the Soviet Invasion and Operation Enduring Freedom share common themes that make them the most comparable. This paper will use the geography of Afghanistan to identify the commonalities of these two conflicts, but the complex geography of Afghanistan makes this task difficult.
- Date of publication
- spring 2014
- Keyword
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Note
- Funding: None
- Advisor
- Caddell, Joseph
- Degree
- Bachelor of Arts
- Honors level
- Honors
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 2014
- Extent
- 100
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