The Second World War in Asia and Africa: lessons of railway geopolitics

Abstract

Railways were a key mode of land transport during the Second World War, including in the Afro-Asian world — from the fronts of North Africa in 1940– 1943 to the theatre of operations in Manchuria in 1945. The exploitation of railway systems already built by that time contributed significantly to the successes of the opposing powers, while further development of these systems made it possible to regard them as powerful geopolitical rays — vectors of military and political influence on space. The experience of rail communications in the logistics of the Second World War taught several lessons which later were taken into account in a number of potential and actual armed conflicts in Asia and Africa. First, a power with a more developed railway network as dual-purpose transport infrastructure stands a better chance of victory. Second, the war emphasized the need to deliberately disrupt the operation of the enemy’s railways. Third, where railways are insufficiently developed, the improvement of ocean communications (“sea power” according to A. Mahan) significantly reduces their effectiveness in their own land-based environment, more specifically in the Eurasian coastal arc (N. Spykman’s Rimland). British and American strategists learned this lesson in the context of the Cold War, which soon began. Fourth, the experience of Asian and African railways during the Second World War is invaluable for assessing the risks of future conflicts. For instance, the use of the Thai–Burma Railway as an instrument of a maritime power against a land power allows us to interpret the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars Railway, built in the early twenty-first century, as a geopolitical ray that strengthens transport routes bypassing Russia and has anti-Russian potential.

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