ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by calling attention to the differential impact of military and civil arenas. Each nation-state conducts its internal affairs on a different assumption, namely, the peaceful acceptance of specific decisions made in the context of a general body of legal doctrine. Disregarding the ups and downs over short periods, it is relevant to speak of the world as a military arena, and of each nation-state as a civil arena. When the territories of a body politic are separated by water, the defensive system takes a distinctive pattern. In place of continuing roadways, a sequence of bases is connected by ships. Intermediate installations are oriented according to the most valued centers of the body politic and the anticipated line of hostile action. Enduring relations of hostility among peoples who occupy fixed territory produce characteristic environmental alignments.
