Environmental Extractivism, Speculation, and Impacts in Battle and Beyond

Session Submission Type: Complete Panel

Abstract

War and militarization have inflicted profound scars on landscapes from devastation on battlefields to the resources extracted to supply the front, and conversely, the environment has dramatically changed battles and war. This panel examines devastation of both combat and occupation, the militarization of extractive economies, and the military’s imperial speculative science, across different time periods, conflicts, and environments. By investigating the relationship of military, war, and society studies with environmental history, this panel reveals not only the complex and interconnected impacts of battles and campaigns but how organizations and nations responded to war and its aftermath. The shared themes of environmental legacies, militarization, and militarism across different eras and environments—from Virginia in the U.S. Civil War to Twentieth-Century conflicts in Vietnam and the Balkans to the Cold War U.S. Army’s scientific understanding of global environments—reshapes our understanding of the relationship of war and the environment and raises questions about the importance of understanding the environment as an equally important subject as the soldiers waging war against each other.

Sub Unit

• ASEH Annual Conference

Individual Presentations

• Environmental Analogs, Color Atlases, and the U.S. Army’s Cold War Environmental Inquiry - Paul Landsberg, US Air Force

• Extractivism and Environmental Damage in North Vietnam during the US-Vietnam War - Pamela McElwee, Rutgers University

• Unexploded Ordnance, Landmines, and the Legacies of Environmental Militarization in Rural Croatia (1991-Present) - Joe Djordjevski, University of Graz

• City Point Virginia: The transformation of a southern town to a critical urban command center and supply depot during the American Civil War - Elizabeth Bucklen, Virginia Tech

Chair

• Amy Kohout, Colorado College