Authors: Andrew Lohman*,
Topics: Military Geography
Keywords: military geography, Vietnam War, security, conflict
Session Type: Paper
Start / End Time: 10:00 AM / 11:40 AM
Room: Bonaparte, Marriott, River Tower Elevators, 4th Floor
Presentation File: No File Uploaded
The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well in other parts of the world today, reveal that war in the current age is extremely complex, as the parties involved are composed of coalitions and partnerships, often with different political and spatial objectives. We know a lot more about these current ongoing conflicts in these regards due to increased news coverage and use of social media as well as more accessible means to collect and map conflict data. These data reveal, but also raise, interesting geographic questions about the patterns of violence that occur as well as the spatial patterns of security, i.e. how forces organize themselves to protect or gain control over different regions and territories, and the methods though which they attempt to reach these ends. However, historical analyses of past conflicts reveal these same complexities, albeit subject to geo-historical contexts. Using conflict incident data from the Vietnam War, as well as qualitative analyses and historical reports, this research seeks to investigate how the forces in this conflict organized their spatial division of security, and how these patterns were reflected in the methods used as well as the observed patterns of violence.