Choke point
Critical military pathway
Summary
In military strategy, a choke point, or sometimes bottleneck, is a geographical feature on land such as a valley, defile, isthmus or bridge, or maritime passage through a critical waterway such as a strait, which an armed force is forced to pass through in order to reach its objective, sometimes on a substantially narrowed front and therefore greatly decreasing its combat effectiveness by making it harder to bring superior numbers to bear. A choke point can allow a numerically inferior defending force to use the terrain as a force multiplier to thwart or ambush a much larger opponent, as the attacker cannot advance any further without first securing passage through the choke point.
Originally created by 66.189.209.176
11/19/2004, 3:25:40 AM
Modified
5/22/2026, 5:26:57 PM
Recent revisions
/* Historical examples */
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linked "strait of gibraltar"
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described as a choke point in this nature study
Undid revision [[Special:Diff/1346363600|1346363600]] by [[Special:Contributions/~2026-20114-35|~2026-20114-35]] ([[User talk:~2026-20114-35|talk]])
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[[Wikipedia:OABOT|Open access bot]]: doi updated in citation with #oabot.
Changing [[Wikipedia:Short description|short description]] from "Critical pathway through land or water, through which an armed force must pass" to "Critical military pathway"
/* Historical examples */it's not a choke point
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This paragraph introduces the topic better
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removed [[Category:Geopolitics]]; added [[Category:Geopolitical terminology]] using [[WP:HC|HotCat]]
