Geography and the Military: Notes for a Debate

Abstract

In the United States, Geography and the military have never been far apart. Their intertwined history has been essential to the discipline's institutional reproduction and the workings of U.S. imperialism. Recent instances of militarism in Geography return this history to the fore, posing a number of challenges. They demonstrate the futility of geographical research for its own sake, naïvely assuming that knowledge of the world produced by geographers is inherently neutral. That same attitude leaves Geography powerless to confront its utility to the military, treating the discipline's militarization as an inevitable coincidence. The current appearance of militarism in U.S. Geography proves both positions untenable. Confronting the extent of this relationship, both past and present, draws attention to how militarism shapes Geography's objects of inquiry and methods of research. That effort must be matched by documentation of the variety of ways in which geographical knowledge is appropriated for military ends. The task is enormous and can only be done collectively lest geographers want to blindly surrender the legitimacy of the discipline to its military application.

在美国, 地理学与军事一向过从甚密。它们相互交织的历史, 是该学门制度再生产与美国帝国主义运作的核心。晚近地理学中的军事主义事件, 让此一历史回到了前沿, 并提出了若干挑战。它们証实了地理学研究为了自身的无效, 天真地假定地理学者所生产的世界知识在本质上是中立的。正是这样的态度, 让地理学无力对抗其之于军事的效用, 并将该学门的军事化当作是无可避免的境况。当前美国地理学的军事化现象, 証实了上述两造立场皆站不住脚。对抗此一关係于过去及当下的限度, 引发了对于军事主义如何形塑地理学的探问对象及研究方法的关注。此般努力, 必须与地理知识如何被挪用作军事目的的诸多方式之记录相互配合。此一工作相当庞大, 且仅能透过集体的方式进行, 除非地理学者愿意盲目的将其学门的正当性交付给军事运用。

En los Estados Unidos, la geografía y los militares nunca han estado alejados entre sí. Su historia entrelazada ha sido esencial para la reproducción institucioal de la disciplina y el funcionamiento del imperialismo americano. Casos recientes de la presencia del militarismo en geografía hacen regresar esta historia a la palestra, lo cual genera una serie de desafíos. Ellos demuestran la futilidad de la investigación geográfica por el intrínseco valor de hacerla, asumiendo ingenuamente que el conocimiento del mundo producido por los geógrafos es inherentemente neutral. Esa misma actitud deja a la geografía sin el poder necesario para confrontar su utilidad para los militares, tratando la militarización de la disciplina como una coincidencia inevitable. La actual aparición del militarismo en la geografía de los Estados Unidos coloca a ambas posiciones como insostenibles. Al confrontar el alcance de esta relación, tanto pasada como actual, llama la atención la manera como el militarismo moldea los objetos de estudio y los métodos de investigación de la geografía. Ese esfuerzo debe ser concurrente con documentación de la variedad de maneras como el conocimiento geográfico es acondicionado para fines militares. La tarea es muy grande y solo puede ser hecha colectivamente a menos que los geógrafos quieran entregar ciegamente la legitimidad de la disciplina a su aplicación militar.

Key Words:

• GEOINT
• history of geography
• imperialism
• militarism

关键词：:

• 地理空间情报 (GEOINT)
• 地理学的历史
• 帝国主义
• 军事主义。

Palabras clave:

• GEOINT
• historia de la geografía
• imperialismo
• militarismo

Notes

1. See http://GEOINT2013.com/about (last accessed 5 June 2015). The event was initially scheduled for Fall 2013 but was postponed by the organizers to 14–17 April 2014.

2. The Event Guide and Exhibitor Directory for GEOINT 2013: Operationalizing Intelligence for Global Missions, available at http://usgif.org/guide.pdf (last accessed 2 September 2014).

3. I use a capital G throughout when referring to the discipline of Geography.

4. The quote is often attribute to nineteenth-century U.S. satirist Ambrose Bierce, although there is no record of him using the phrase. Instead it likely comes from a 1987 comedy routine by Paul Rodriguez. For a chronicle of its popular use, see Barry Popik's etymological dictionary, The Big Apple, available online at http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/god_created_war_so_that_americans_would_learn_geography (last accessed 27 August 2014).

5. See http://usgif.org/education/academic_advisory_board (last accessed 5 June 2015).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joe Bryan

JOE BRYAN is Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309–0260. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include indigenous politics in the Americas, participatory mapping, and U.S. imperialism. He is the coauthor with Denis Wood of Weaponizing Maps: Indigenous Peoples and Counterinsurgency in the Americas (Guilford, 2015).