This book offers a fresh approach to the study of Military Geography! Palka and Galgano truly understand the impact of geographic information on the conduct of military operations! Moreover, they clearly appreciate the changing nature of conflict and as a result have addressed the effect of geographic conditions across the full spectrum of military operations. From peacekeeping to small scale contingencies to all out war, they precisely address the range of geographic challenges encountered by military commanders in the past and the anticipated challenges of the future. The vignettes address key issues that the military leader must understand to make timely and accurate decisions. Overall, this book is essential reading for the military leader and a must add to his professional library. Although this is a great military book, the geographic community and public in general would most certainly enjoy looking at classic military operations through a geographic lens. Additionally, all will benefit from the information presented as the traditional lines between peace and war continue to blur.

The conduct of any military enterprise is conditioned by the character of the area of operations - the military operating environment. The book focuses on the synergy between georgraphy and military operations wherever they occur.

This book covers many topics that are crucial to military planning but often receive only passing mention in histories or briefings. Collins, a former Army officer, stresses land geography, but he does not stint oceans, the atmosphere, or interplanetary space. His discussions of urban areas are too brief, given the increasing amount of large-scale violence in cities since the end of World War II.

This book of contributed chapters by subject matter expertly provides an overview and analysis of salient contemporary and historical military subjects from the military geographer’s perspective. Factors of geography have had a compelling influence on battles and campaigns throughout history; however, geography and military affairs have gained heightened attention during the past two decades, and military geography is the discipline best situated to explain them. Hence, the premise of this book and its contents are founded on the principle that geographical knowledge of space, place, people, and scale provide essential insights into contemporary security issues and promotes the idea that such insight is critical to understanding and managing significant military problems at local, regional, and global scales.

Originally published in 1983, this broad-ranging book provides penetrating insights on the role of geography in both historic and modern-day warfare. Tactically at a local level, strategically at the campaign level and geopolitically at the global level geographical knowledge is crucial. This book analyses geographical solutions to technical questions of logistics and transportation, the impact of climatology on planning for military action and the understanding of spatial geography for urban and guerrilla wars.