Blockade

A blockade is any effort to prevent supplies, troops, information or aid from reaching an opposing force. Blockades are the cornerstone to nearly all military campaigns and the tool of choice for economic warfare on an opposing nation.

Blockades can take any number of forms from a simple garrison of troops along a main roadway to utilizing dozens or hundreds of surface combatant ships in securing a harbor, denying its use to the enemy, and even in cutting off or jamming broadcast signals from radio or television. As a military operation, blockades have been known to be the deciding factor in winning or losing a war.

Blockades are planned around four general rules:
*Value of thing to be blockaded
*Blockading strength is equal to or greater than the opposing force
*Suitability of terrain to aid in the blockade
*Willpower to maintain the blockade

Firstly, the value of the item being blockaded must warrant the need to blockade. For example, during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the items to be blockaded (or "quarantined," the more legally- and politically-neutral term selected by President John F. Kennedy) were medium-range missiles, capable of delivering nuclear weaponry, bound for Cuba. The need for the blockade was high because of the value of the missiles as a military threat against the United States.

Second, the strength of the blockading force must be equal to or greater in strength than the opposition. The blockade is only successful if the 'thing' is prevented from reaching its receiver. Again the Cuban blockade illustration shows that the United States put to sea a number of warships to inspect and blockade the waters around Cuba. This show of strength showed the U.S. Navy forces were much larger and stronger in the area compared to their Soviet Navy counterparts.

Third, in the case of land blockades, choosing suitable terrain. Knowing where the force will be travelling through will help the blockader in choosing territory to aid them. For example, forcing a garrison between a high mountain pass in order to bottle neck the opposing force.

Fourth, willpower to maintain a blockade. The success of a blockade is based almost entirely on the will of the people to maintain it. The Cuban blockade is an example of maintaining willpower to block the missiles from reaching Cuba despite the risk of starting a world wide nuclear war.

Types

*Naval blockade: an effort at sea, to prevent supplies from reaching the enemy, e.g. mining of Haiphong harbor.
*Siege
*Electronic Warfare Jamming

Historical blockades include:

* British blockade of France and its allies during the French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic War
*British blockade of the United States east coast during the War of 1812
* Union blockade of the Confederacy during the American Civil War
* Battle of Iquique during the War of the Pacific
* British blockade of Germany during World War I as a part of the First Battle of the Atlantic.
* The Second Battle of the Atlantic during World War II
* United States blockade of Japan during World War II
* United States blockade of Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962
* Soviet land blockade of West Berlin, 1948–1949, known as the Berlin Blockade.
* Egyptian blockades of the Straits of Tiran prior to the 1956 Suez War and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War
*Israeli blockade of Lebanon in July, 2006 in response to the Hezbollah kidnapping of 2 Israeli soldiers

See also

* Siege