Volume 7, Issue 4, Winter 2022 23 Fortified Strategic Complexes David Betz - Department of War Studies, King’s College London About the author David Betz is Professor of War in the ModernWorld in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London where he heads the MA War Studies programme. His main research interests at present are strategy and historical and contemporary fortifications. The last work on fortification as an active subject of military affairs with significant prospects for the future was written over a century ago by the British military engineer Sir George Sydenham Clarke. Even then, he pointed out that there was no ‘school of thought regarding fortification’, that elementary principles are still ‘floating in solution’, and no ‘consensus of mature opinion’ has been attained.[i] The situation today is not much different. The topic is either overlooked in the strategic studies literature, addressed peremptorily or narrowly tactically, or treated as something of historical interest rather than immediately relevant.[ii] This is a problem for the field because the simple fact is that fortification is at the core of contemporary conflicts, not at its boundaries, not a historical concern but an increasingly vital aspect of contemporary war and warfare.[iii] Fortified strategic complexes are at the forefront of the military efforts of a range of major and minor states to serve national policy—a phenomenon which I suggest is somewhat recognised (as they are usually hard to miss) but poorly understood.[iv] As a first step, it is worth considering some common assumptions about the subject by way of arriving at a more embracing understanding of fortification that will help us to better illuminate what is going on and to inform practice. To cite this article: Betz, David, “Fortified Strategic Complexes,” Military Strategy Magazine, Volume 7, Issue 4, winter 2022, pages 23-29. Image credit: Military Wiki, “Gun emplacement in Fort Campbell, built in the 1930s,” https://bit.ly/3tbv3y4
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTU5