chokepoint

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In military strategy, a choke point (or chokepoint) is a geographical feature on land such as a valley, defile or a bridge, or at sea such as a strait which an armed force is forced to pass, sometimes on a substantially narrower front, and therefore greatly decreasing its combat power, in order to reach its objective. A choke point would allow a numerically inferior defending force to successfully prevent a larger opponent because the attacker would not be able to bring his superior numbers to bear.

Historical examples

Some historical examples of the tactical use of choke points are King Leonidas's defense of the Pass of Thermopylae during an invasion led by Xerxes I of Persia and the Battle of Agincourt, where Henry V of England decisively defeated the French when they were forced to attack his smaller army through a narrow gap in the Agincourt Woods.

The most important naval choke points were first identified by John Arbuthnot Fisher in his defense of continued British colonialism (important colonies in parentheses):

• Hormuz Strait between Oman and Iran at the entrance to the Persian Gulf (UAE)
• Strait of Malacca between Malaysia and Indonesia (Singapore)
• Bab-el-Mandeb passage from the Arabian Sea to the Red Sea (Yemen and Socotra)
• Panama Canal and the Panama Pipeline connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans (British Honduras)
• Suez Canal and the Sumed Pipeline connecting the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea (Egypt)
• The Turkish Straits/Bosporus linking the Black Sea (and oil coming from the Caspian Sea region) to the Mediterranean Sea (Cyprus)
• The Strait of Gibraltar (Gibraltar)
• Cape Horn (Falklands)
• The Cape of Good Hope (South Africa)

During the Second World War an airborne Operation Market Garden attempted to secure multiple strategic bridges which acted as choke points in passage of significant water obstacles.

Other major choke points:

• The English Channel
• GIUK Gap

These two choke points carry significant strategic importance for the Royal Navy to this day. The GIUK gap is particularly important to the Royal Navy, as any attempt by northern European forces to break into the open Atlantic would have to do so either through the heavily defended English Channel which is also the world's busiest shipping lane or through one of the exits on either side of Iceland. When also considering British control over the strategic fortress of Gibraltar at the entrance to the Mediterranean, Spain (northern coast), France (Atlantic coast) and Portugal are the only mainland European nations that have direct access to the Atlantic ocean in a way that cannot be easily blocked at a choke point by the Royal Navy. The GIUK gap was also an strategically important part of the Cold War as the Royal Navy were given the responsibility of keeping an eye on Soviet submarines trying to break into the open Atlantic.

Importance

Choke points remain a prominent issue today in the global economy and shipments of goods, particularly oil. Twenty percent of the world's oil is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, which has seen previous conflicts such as the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by American missiles in 1988. The Suez Canal and Sumed Pipeline carry 4.5 million barrels a day. The canal was closed for eight years after the Six Day War in 1967. In many instances, alternate routes are non-existent or unpractical. For example, an alternate to the Suez/Sumed route required an additional 6000 miles around to Cape of Good Hope.^[1] The Royal Navy also deem their choke points to the Atlantic as strategically important to this day.

Other uses

"Chokepoint" is synonymous with "bottleneck". In network security, the firewall between a local network and the Internet is considered a choke point because any attacker would have to come through that channel, which would be guarded carefully. In graph theory and network analysis, a chokepoint is any node in a network with a high centrality.

See also

• Strategic geography
• Sea lines of communication
• String of Pearls (China)

References