The boundary of a TO is defined by the commander who is orchestrating or providing support for specific combat operations within the TO. Theater of operations (TO) is a sub-area within a theater of war. Such a clearly defined idea as this is not capable of universal application it is here used merely to indicate the line of distinction. To give an adequate idea of this, we may suppose that on this portion an advance is made, whilst in another quarter a retreat is taking place, or that upon the one an army is acting defensively, whilst an offensive is being carried on upon the other. Such a portion is not a mere piece of the whole, but a small whole complete in itself and consequently it is more or less in such a condition that changes which take place at other points in the seat of war have only an indirect and no direct influence upon it.
This protection may consist of fortresses, or important natural obstacles presented by the country, or even in its being separated by a considerable distance from the rest of the space embraced in the war.
In his book On War, Carl von Clausewitz defines the term Kriegstheater (translating the older, 17th-century Latin term theatrum belli) as one that:ĭenotes properly such a portion of the space over which war prevails as has its boundaries protected, and thus possesses a kind of independence.
