ABSTRACT
Any space gained must be militarily organized to facilitate the planning, preparation, and conduct of major operations or campaigns. With the advent of massive armies and large navies in the late nineteenth century it became necessary to delineate and militarily organize a given space that might be used by one's forces in terms of the 'theater of war' or 'theater of operations'. Today, a theater of war in the generic definition of the term is understood as an area of land or sea and the airspace above it that might become directly a scene of military action. Land and maritime theaters of war may be differentiated. A land theater is usually established to control a major part of the landmass, and its associated airspace, vital to the sustenance of a nation or nations, or to destroy the enemy's means of exercising such control. In generic terms, a maritime theater of war encompasses the entire surface of a given ocean or sea, including the sub surface, adjacent coastal areas, islands, archipelagoes, and the airspace above it. Military actions in a maritime theater may vary from the limited use of forces for peacekeeping and nation-assistance to major operations intended to destroy or neutralize enemy naval forces or major joint operations to control the principal land areas. The terms 'land' and 'maritime' theaters do not pertain to any particular service but are used to describe the predominant feature of the physical environment in which one's forces operate or are to operate. In each type of theater, all services will be employed. Hence, the theater commands are inherently joint (multi-service) in character, and often combined (multi-national).
