Military geography generally applies the concepts and techniques of geography to the study of military problems, situations, and activities. It examines, among other things, the causal effects of physical geography (e.g., terrain, climate) on military battles, campaigns, and wars. More recent developments in the discipline, however, have broadened the scope of military geography to include the study of military operations other than war (known by the acronym MOOTW), as well as the impacts of militarism on societies and the environment and also the use of environmental resources as components of military-related activities.

Military geography is intimately associated with the development of the discipline, an association that dates far back to early Greece. Thucy-dides's account of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BCE), for example, is an early application ...