Abstract
The relation between space and conflict is a long-established research agenda. The specific question of the effect of geographic distance on military power recently received much less attention.
The relationship was studied but remains undertheorized, with much effort aimed at the question of whether its significance is decreasing with technological advancements. With the return of great power competition and renewed risk of major interstate armed conflicts, it is important to reexamine the degree to which distance presents a barrier to military power and under what condition distance matters.
The paper examines the different causal mechanism linking geographic distance with a decrease in military power and conditions under which they gain or lose significance. This is done through a comprehensive review of existing research, incorporating findings of military logistics scholarship and detailed exploration of an extreme case of the Falklands war.
The paper argues, that while distance is always affecting military operations, it significantly constrains the military power of a state only in specific conditions. Prime of those is time pressure, the scale of the war testing limits of nations material capabilities and ability of the defending state to contest far away areas.
These findings help to reconcile diverging findings of the previous research on the importance of distance, as it demonstrates why distance was not a major obstacle for many recent wars but also cautions about the importance of distance in a potential major power war.