Shared Battlegrounds: War at the Crossroads of Environmental History and the History of Science
Gorostiza, Santiago LU
(2025)
In Centaurus
67(1).
p.205-205
- Abstract
- In recent years, the environmental impact of warfare has made front-page news. Discussions about “ecocide”—a term first proposed in 1970 by Yale biologist Arthur W. Galston to describe the large-scale destruction of ecosystems during the Vietnam War—have come into the spotlight. The preparation and conduct of war, along with the social, economic, and scientific reorganisation that accompany it, offer rich topics for historians of science and technology interested in the environment. At the same time, since the turn of the 21st century, the study of war has emerged as a burgeoning subfield within environmental history. Edmund Russell's War and Nature (2001) inspired extensive scholarly research exploring the direct and indirect impact of... (More)
- In recent years, the environmental impact of warfare has made front-page news. Discussions about “ecocide”—a term first proposed in 1970 by Yale biologist Arthur W. Galston to describe the large-scale destruction of ecosystems during the Vietnam War—have come into the spotlight. The preparation and conduct of war, along with the social, economic, and scientific reorganisation that accompany it, offer rich topics for historians of science and technology interested in the environment. At the same time, since the turn of the 21st century, the study of war has emerged as a burgeoning subfield within environmental history. Edmund Russell's War and Nature (2001) inspired extensive scholarly research exploring the direct and indirect impact of military operations on the environment, as well as their legacies for human and non-human life. This review article focuses on how the development of the environmental history of war subfield has intersected with the history of science. First, it highlights how Russell's work has engaged audiences in both the history of science and the history of technology. In its early years, however, the field served as a bridge between environmental history and military history and delved into a classic theme of environmental history: conservation. Second, it discusses how studies on war and environment expanded beyond the battlefield to encompass militarised landscapes and the effects of military supply chains, among other topics. Third, it highlights how research on Cold War science provided a key site for intellectual exchange between environmental history of war and the history of science. Finally, it identifies several research avenues that could foster further collaboration between these fields, including: the concept of ecocide, the study of environmental infrastructure and envirotechnical objects, the epistemic foundations of military environmentalist discourses, and the significance of environmental data production and use in warfare. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/e9f410a5-d38d-4240-8404-9973564531cc
- author
- Gorostiza, Santiago
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Environmental history of war, History of science, Conservation, War and Nature, Cold War Science, Ecocide
- in
- Centaurus
- volume
- 67
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 234 pages
- publisher
- Tech Science Press
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105026770878
- ISSN
- 0008-8994
- DOI
- 10.1484/J.CNT.5.151968
- project
- From military to civil crime: an environmental history of ecocide (FORMAS career grant)
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- e9f410a5-d38d-4240-8404-9973564531cc
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-21 10:16:03
- date last changed
- 2026-01-22 04:01:09
@article{e9f410a5-d38d-4240-8404-9973564531cc,
abstract = {{In recent years, the environmental impact of warfare has made front-page news. Discussions about “ecocide”—a term first proposed in 1970 by Yale biologist Arthur W. Galston to describe the large-scale destruction of ecosystems during the Vietnam War—have come into the spotlight. The preparation and conduct of war, along with the social, economic, and scientific reorganisation that accompany it, offer rich topics for historians of science and technology interested in the environment. At the same time, since the turn of the 21st century, the study of war has emerged as a burgeoning subfield within environmental history. Edmund Russell's War and Nature (2001) inspired extensive scholarly research exploring the direct and indirect impact of military operations on the environment, as well as their legacies for human and non-human life. This review article focuses on how the development of the environmental history of war subfield has intersected with the history of science. First, it highlights how Russell's work has engaged audiences in both the history of science and the history of technology. In its early years, however, the field served as a bridge between environmental history and military history and delved into a classic theme of environmental history: conservation. Second, it discusses how studies on war and environment expanded beyond the battlefield to encompass militarised landscapes and the effects of military supply chains, among other topics. Third, it highlights how research on Cold War science provided a key site for intellectual exchange between environmental history of war and the history of science. Finally, it identifies several research avenues that could foster further collaboration between these fields, including: the concept of ecocide, the study of environmental infrastructure and envirotechnical objects, the epistemic foundations of military environmentalist discourses, and the significance of environmental data production and use in warfare.}},
author = {{Gorostiza, Santiago}},
issn = {{0008-8994}},
keywords = {{Environmental history of war; History of science; Conservation; War and Nature; Cold War Science; Ecocide}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{205--205}},
publisher = {{Tech Science Press}},
series = {{Centaurus}},
title = {{Shared Battlegrounds: War at the Crossroads of Environmental History and the History of Science}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/240082712/Gorostiza_2025_J.CNT.5.151968.pdf}},
doi = {{10.1484/J.CNT.5.151968}},
volume = {{67}},
year = {{2025}},
}