Geography Brown Bag Colloquium Series: The Role of Geography in Counter-Insurgency Warfare: The Philippine - American War, 1899 - 1902

by: Febbie Casabuena

         For the latest installment of the Brown Bag Colloquium, the Department of Geography invited Dr. William Holden from the Department of Geography of the University of Calgary. Dr. Holden talked about how geography affects the outcome of insurgency or rather, counter-insurgency warfare.

          Dr. Holden noted how terrain is often seen as something that favors the insurgents. In his paper "The Role of Geography in Counter-Insurgency Warfare: The Philippine - American War, 1899 -  1902", he discussed how the Philippine terrain gave American government an advantage in its counter-insurgency efforts in the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Batangas, Marinduque, Samar, and Cebu. Due to the archipelagic nature of the country, the Americans managed to compartmentalize the provinces with insurgencies by controlling the seas to control the movement of the insurgents and the influx of goods and weaponry available to the resistance. Fragmentation of the islands also led to the fragmentation of the country's human geography which the Americans utilized to their advantage, particularly using the resentment of other ethnic groups under Tagalog insurgent leaders to sow distrust and weaken the resistance.  Americans also placed garrisons in communities which afforded them permanent control of the area as well as separation of the locals from the insurgents, effectively cutting off the resistances' supplies and intelligence reports. Furthermore, the Americans also employed medical warfare which cut down the local population, thereby further weakening the insurgency in the provinces.

          Dr. Holden finished his lecture with how history is repeating itself - or at least, how "we are moving towards the age of insurgencies", especially of the marginalized. He listed three things that could drive this: [1] the vast inequalities occurring under neoliberal capitalism; [2] environmental degradation, particularly climate change; and [3] the culture of militarization.