ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the uniqueness of land warfare based upon the distinctiveness of the land environment or domain and the consequences that this has had for the nature of warfare on land. It identifies the importance for the effective conduct of land warfare of thinking about how land warfare should be orchestrated at different levels and in relation to other instruments of power. The chapter explores some of the important concepts and principles that have developed as guides for the exercise of land warfare in the modern period. It is important to consider the political significance of the land domain; its variability; its opacity; its mutability; and the pervasive friction that terrain imposes on the forces that have to fight on it. Manoeuvre on land is slower relative to the air or sea environments and tends physically to be much more wearing.
