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The United States 2002 Unified Command Plan: Antarctica and the areas of responsibility of military commanders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2008

Klaus Dodds  and
Alan D. Hemmings
Klaus Dodds
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX
Alan D. Hemmings
Affiliation:
Gateway Antarctica Centre for Antarctic Studies and Research, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand
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Abstract

In October 2002, following the 11 September 2001 attacks on the United States, the Unified Command Plan (UCP), that sets out the geographical responsibilities of combatant commanders, was revised with regard to their areas of responsibility. Accompanying these changes was a map, which detailed the geographical boundaries of the US Northern, Pacific, Southern, European and Central Commands. The map indicated that two of these Commands, Southern and European Command stretched as far south as the Antarctic coastline while a third (Pacific) not only did that but also included the entire Antarctic continent. In 2007, a new Africa Command comprising the southern part of European Command, was instituted and this, too, stretched to the Antarctic coastline. This note briefly considers some of the implications that might follow from these changes to the UCP and highlights logistical patterns, search and rescue matters and the question of the demilitarisation of Antarctica.

Type
Notes
Information
Polar Record , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , April 2008 , pp. 173 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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