Researching the intersections between war, law and military geography

This chapter charts a research agenda for what might called legal military geography. It argues that military geography and proximate fields of study would be enriched by attending to ‘the legal’ and closely examining the role that law plays in the conduct of war and military operations. The chapter explores the sometimes-surprising relations between war and law and suggests that military geographies are often underwritten by legal regimes and legal regulations that have been seldom noted by military geographers. The first two sections lay some conceptual foundations for legal military geography and demonstrate some of the manifold relationships between war, law and military geography. The chapter then shows how law and legal discourse are key means through which later modern war and the later modern battlefield are being contemporaneously (re)written. It then explores the role of law in maintaining and blurring the distinction between war and peace and civilian and military worlds, before reflecting on the status of ‘war’ within contemporary military geography research. The chapter concludes with some reflections on methodology and the implications of bringing ‘law’ into the military geography fold.