The definitive version of this article is published by Sage as: Woodward, R. From Military Geography to militarism's geographies: disciplinary engagements with the geographies of militarism and military activities. Progress in Human Geography 2005, 29(6), 718-740. http://phg.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/29/6/718 From Military Geography to militarism’s geographies: disciplinary engagements with the geographies of militarism and military activities. Dr Rachel Woodward Contact details: School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, University of Newcastle Email:
[email protected] Tel: 0191 222 8354 Fax: 0191 222 6720 Forthcoming in: Progress in Human Geography , (2005), Vol. 29, Issue 6, page numbers t.b.c. 1 Keywords: militarism, military geography, military geographies, militarisation, defence, armed forces, war, armed conflict. Abstract This paper reviews contemporary approaches in Anglophone human geography to the geographical constitution and expression of militarism and military activities. Three main approaches are identified, and the merits, limitations and insights of each discussed. These are: traditional Military Geography, intimately associated with state military discourses of military power; a broad political geography, focused on the spatiality of armed conflict; and research from across the social sciences on the political economies and socio-cultural geographies of militarism, particularly in non-conflict situations. The paper concludes with some suggestions for further empirical and theoretical inquiry, and argues on moral grounds for a human geography explicitly concerned with military geographies in all their forms. 2 I Introduction: The Silent Cannon Let me start with two initial observations about military geographies, the first personal and the second scholarly.