Author: Kevin Black

Summer Essay Campaign #16: “The Strategic Utility of Space and People”

To Answer Question #7: “How do geography and demographics impact a nation’s grand and military strategic choices?”

By Kevin Black

There are different means of forcing nations or cultures to submit to one’s will. Aside from indirect means using economic and diplomatic strategies, the most direct alternative is a military strategy.  When each strategy is integrated toward one common goal or approach, a grand strategy exists.   Strategies are not created out of a vacuum as many factors contribute to their development.  (Whether or not they are overtly recognized is another issue.)  At the nation-state level many factors contribute; history, culture, and government are just some examples.  This paper is concerned with geography and demography. 

Geography can be defined as the arrangement of places and physical features given a specific location.  Let’s examine its key elements of size, position, and resources.   Size refers to the physical extent of a nation.  In terms of grand strategy, the Soviet Union leveraged its size as a defensive deterrent against a European invasion during the Cold War.  The Nazi goal of “lebensraum” acted as a political justification for their invasion in 1941.  In military strategy terms, size enabled the Red Army to trade time for space, stretching the Wehrmacht to its brink.