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CALDWELL, D. R., EHLEN, J. & HARMON, R. S. (eds) 2004. Studies in Military Geography and Geology.

xiv + 348 pp. Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer. Price Euros 119.95, £79.00, SFr 194.50, US $159.00 (hard covers). ISBN 1 4020 3104 1.

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More than six decades on from the end of World War Two, there are few people who have personal experience of warfare involving conventional battlefields. Apart from low-intensity, counter-insurgency conflicts, the post-WW2 period, one of continual conflict somewhere on the planet, has seen not a single campaign that has pitted large armies on a roughly equal footing, except occasionally in Korea and Vietnam. Pitched battles, such as Desert Storm in the first Gulf War, have been decided by overwhelming air power and surface-to-surface firepower in a matter of a few hours, irrespective of ground. So a book on the central role of terrain in military strategy and tactics is more of historical interest than looking ahead to battle plans that are dominated by conditions under foot. Stemming from a conference at the US Military Academy, West Point in 2003, it is no surprise to find Studies in Military Geography and Geology dominated by North American issues from the War of Independence and the Civil War. But there . . . [Full Text of this Article]