Choke Point
A choke point is a narrow passage or channel that serves as a strategic point of control for maritime or land transportation. It can be a natural feature, such as a strait or canal, or a man-made structure like a bridge or tunnel. Choke points have significant geopolitical and economic importance due to their impact on trade and military access.
4 Key excerpts on "Choke Point"
eBook - ePubMaritime Strategy and Sea Control
Theory and Practice
- Milan Vego(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Physical control of the sea exit(s) in itself is insufficient for obtaining control of an enclosed or semi-enclosed sea theater. Hence, a stronger side must also obtain control of additional tactically and operationally important positions and Choke Points within a given narrow sea. It must then attack and destroy a major part of the enemy’s naval forces and those non-naval forces deployed in the littorals that could prevent friendly naval/commercial movements. Notes 1 John Fisher, “Appendix H: Instant Readiness for War, Strategy – Fleet Distribution and Fleet Orders,” in Peter Kemp, editor, The Papers of Admiral Sir John Fisher, Vol. 1 (London: Naval Records Society, 1960), pp. 160–61. 2 The term “Choke Point” (or bottleneck) is defined as a narrow passage, such as a strait through which shipping must pass; an alternate meaning is a point of congestion or obstruction American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th ed. (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2011); the same term is also used in referring to both geographical features on land (e.g., valleys, mountain passes, defiles) and at sea (e.g., straits, narrows, channels, artificial canals); the term “maritime Choke Point” pertains in general to narrow waterways canals connecting two large bodies of water and to straits/narrows in particular; in transport geography, a Choke Point refers to locations that limit the capacity of circulation and cannot be easily bypassed, if at all; this implies that any alternative to a chokepoint involves a level of detour or use of an alternative that translates into significant financial costs and delays; maritime Choke Points are the result of the constraints of physical geography, whereas others, such as the Suez and Panama canals, are artificial creations Jean-Paul Rodrigue, “Straits, Passages and Chokepoints. A Maritime Geostrategy of Petroleum Distribution,” Cahers de Géographie du Québec, Vol. 48, No. 135 (December 2004), p...
eBook - ePubThe Maritime Dimension of European Security
Seapower and the European Union
- B. Germond(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
...These positions (usually straits, canals, or peninsula) command access to certain portions of the oceans. They are usually located along important SLOCs where they constitute a point of congestion. Examples include the Strait of Malacca (and the Kra Isthmus), the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, the Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Horn. With the melting of the polar ice cap, the geostrategic importance of the Bering Strait is also likely to grow. The strategic importance of chokepoints has given birth to a specific geopolitical subdiscourse, which emphasises the need to either control those chokepoints or at least make sure no one else can control them exclusively, so as to secure one’s own use of the sea as a means of transportation and communication. A recent example can be found in China’s ‘string of pearls’ narrative, which represents the sea route from China to the Indian Ocean as vital for China’s economic and energy security and thus legitimises China’s acquisition of (or access to) naval facilities along it: in the Spartly Islands, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Pakistan (Pant, 2012: 365). That said, China’s ‘expansionist’ maritime narrative is still balanced by the ‘Zhang He’ narrative, which rather puts the emphasis on China’s benign intentions. Indeed, Ming Dynasty Admiral Zhang He’s travel and sojourn ‘in maritime Asia without attempting military conquest [is used as] a metaphor for China’s current peaceful ascent in the maritime domain’, including in the Indian Ocean (Yoshihara, 2010). *** Geography does constrain politics in general and seapower in particular, at least to a certain extent and in conjunction with ideational factors. In turn, states have developed geopower politics, whose maritime dimension has always been crucial...
eBook - ePubThe United States and Greek-Turkish Relations
The Guardian's Dilemma
- Spyros Katsoulas(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The importance of this geopolitical configuration stems as much from its own valuable assets and functions, as from its proximity to other important regions: the Balkans, Central Asia, the Middle East, the Suez Canal, the Persian Gulf, and North Africa. By virtue of its intermediate location and its geographical features, the Rimland Bridge features special transit and buffer qualities. However, its component parts are also locked in an enduring rivalry, thus providing fertile ground for tensions and conflicts that occasionally disturb regional stability. The Rimland Bridge has three distinct characteristics: it is a strategic chokepoint, a busy gateway, but also a dangerous fault line. A chokepoint refers to a strategic geographical point of congestion, be that on land or at sea. Control of strategic narrow passages is of paramount importance for military reasons. The Rimland Bridge is a critical point where land power and sea power meet. It, thus, functions as a buffer zone between those states oriented toward sea power and those oriented toward land power. By default, land power and sea power cannot wage direct struggle against each other, except at the margins. Control of the region by one of them is threatening to the other, because it provides each with access to the other’s dominium. As Spykman points out, The power to control a route is the power to deny it to others...The power to control a sea route or an inland or marginal sea such as the Mediterranean or the North Sea becomes the power to deny the littoral states their access to the oceans. Such a situation will be felt by the strong coastal states as an intolerable obstacle to freedom to be removed at all cost. 27 From a military perspective, the quintessential characteristic of the Rimland Bridge is its amphibiousness...
eBook - ePubWar, Peace and International Relations
An introduction to strategic history
- Colin S. Gray(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...As was noted in Chapter 1, physical geography (and therefore geopolitics) constitutes a dimension to, and a significant source of fuel for, strategic history that has always been in play. The history explained here has unfolded and occasionally erupted in, on and sometimes for physical geography (now in five distinctive domains) as well as in geography as it is understood politically and strategically. Physical geography (distance, climate and so forth) is likely to cast the deciding vote on the prudence or imprudence of particular strategies. But the relevance of physical geography for decisions to act is filtered and mediated by political and strategic judgement. Are long distances more challenge than barrier? US military power could not reach Japan in decisive force until the fleet train of at-sea logistics was reinvented, constructed and practised to near perfection. Was Russian geography, sheer space and distance with severely harassing weather expressing an unforgiving climate, fatal for Hitler's adventure in the East in 1941? Or is it more sensible to view physical geography as a potentially manageable challenge that the Germans failed to meet? The so-called ‘global commons’ of the sea, air, orbital space and cyberspace are strategic highways for us if we are able to use them as and when we wish. When a particular ‘common’ is contested – or, worse, commanded by an enemy – it becomes a highway of menace. While ever alert to the perils of determinism, it is necessary to acknowledge the ways in which geography and its human-constructed dependencies, geopolitics and geo-strategy, intrude into the grand historical narrative. When thinking about any and every episode in the war–peace cycle covered in this book, readers should be alert to the geographical sources of influence on events. States are defined territorially and the human players who engage in strategic behaviour on their behalf must act in geographical space...
