THE SCALE OF CONFLICT: A LEVELS OF WAR AND GIS APPROACH TO THE BATTLE OF ROI-NAMUR

Abstract

The World War II Battle of Roi-Namur represents a culmination of overarching facets of planning, tactics, and application. Though taking place in a small region of the Pacific Ocean, this battle involved components that originated well beyond the size of its landmass. This thesis seeks to combine a Levels of War framework and a Geographic Information Systems approach to better understand and analyze the Battle of Roi-Namur. The Levels of War framework assigned all components of the battle to its various levels, which established a foundation for analytical processes. Geographic Information Systems allowed for a visualization of the battlefield through a multiscale approach and provided the means for each component to be spatially represented. Using these methods allows all elements of this conflict to be understood both independently and holistically. Together these methodologies elicit new understanding and interpretations of the conflict while exploring the potential limitations of the Levels of War framework in furthering the understanding of conflict.