Comparative Ecologies of Conflict

The workshop aims to contribute a new perspective on the impact of war on the environment through a combined social and natural scientific engagement with comparative cases from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Ukraine.

We have chosen these cases as they allow us to compare the impact of warfare on the environment in various war theaters and across time scales, geographic locales, and ecological systems.

Theoretically, the workshop approaches these comparative cases through three key analytical lenses, namely (1) environmental pollution, remediation, and regeneration, (2) the economic and political dimensions of warfare, and (3) the development of legal and extra-legal frameworks to address the issues of responsibility and accountability.

The workshop seeks to foster a holistic, interdisciplinary framework that integrates perspectives from environmental sciences, biology, public health, anthropology, sociology, law, economics, history, and conflict studies. By bringing together scholars from various disciplines to explore the connections between the environment and conflict, we want to go beyond dominant narratives of climate change and environmental justice by centering both short- and long-term consequences of warfare for the environment and all living beings within that environment.