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ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY STUDIES

Volume 21

WARFARE IN A FRAGILE WORLD

WARFARE IN A FRAGILE WORLD

Military Impact on the Human Environment

SIPRI
STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL PEACE
RESEARCH INSTITUTE

First published in 1980 by Taylor & Francis Ltd

This edition first published in 2021

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1980 SIPRI

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-367-68499-0 (Set)

ISBN: 978-1-00-316169-1 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-71465-9 (Volume 21) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-71472-7 (Volume 21) (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-00-315220-0 (Volume 21) (ebk)

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer

The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

Warfare in a Fragile World

Military Impact on the Human Environment

sipri
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

First published 1980 by Taylor & Francis Ltd

10-14 Macklin Street, London WC2B 5NF

Copyright 1980 by SIPRI

Sveavgen 166, S-113 46 Stockholm

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Distributed in the United States of America by

Crane, Russak & Company, Inc.

3 East 44th Street, New York, N.Y. 10017

and in Scandinavia by

Almqvist & Wiksell International

26 Gamla Brogatan

S-101 20 Stockholm, Sweden

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

Warfare in a fragile world.

1. WarEnvironmental aspects

I. Title II. Westing, Arthur H

574.5222 QH545.W26

ISBN 0-85066-187-0

Typeset by Georgia Origination, Liverpool Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by Taylor & Francis (Printers) Ltd., Rankine Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG24 0PR

Preface

The military impact on the human environment is a problem of increasing importance. The present study examines how and to what extent warfare damages the environment. It is the third in a series of SIPRI studies relating to the impact of warfare on the environment. The first two, Ecological Consequences of the Second Indochina War (1976) and Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Environment (1977), examined particular weapons and techniques of war and their ability to disrupt the environment. The present study examines the several major global environments and their vulnerability to military disruption.

A number of multilateral treaties are relevant to the prevention of environmental damage by war. Among those already in force are the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, the World Heritage Convention of 1972, the Environmental Modification Convention of 1977, and the two Geneva Protocols of 1977 additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949. I hope that this series of studies will contribute to discussion on this issue.

This book was written by Dr Arthur H. Westing while he was a senior research fellow at SIPRI. He is now Professor of Ecology and Dean of the School of Natural Science at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.

July 1979

Frank Barnaby
Director

Acknowledgement
The author is pleased to acknowledge Rajesh Kumar for editing the manuscript.

The tables for this chapter appear on pages 14-29.

Wars have occurred without substantial if any interruption throughout the long sweep of human history, unequivocally establishing them among the characteristic endeavours of our species. So far in this century alone there have occurred some 16 major wars and more than 10 times as many minor wars (). That is to say, a new war of major magnitude has been occurring once every five years, on the average. There is, furthermore, little reason to doubt that the human failing that leads to such activity will persist in the years to come.

Wars result in loss of life and other casualties, in destruction of property, and in social disruption. They additionally lead to environmental damage and ecological disruptionmatters of growing concern and the subject of the present work. Damage to the human environment is of growing concern because of the awakening demands of an ever-increasingly over-populated world. The concern for nature has been reinforced, moreover, by the recent military demonstrations of ecological devastation as an intentional strategy of war.

Two recent SIPRI studies have dealt with the impact of warfare upon the environment, both approaching the subject from the standpoint of specific weapons or means of war. The first of these, Ecological Consequences of the Second Indochina War (SIPRI, 1976), analysed a particular war and dwelt especially upon the impact of conventional high-explosive munitions, of herbicidal chemical anti-plant agents, and of land-clearing tractors (Rome ploughs). The second, Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Environment (SIPRI, 1977), described the effects of nuclear weapons, of chemical and biological anti-personnel agents, and of a number of so-called geophysical weapons. The present work, in contrast, approaches the subject from the standpoint of specific habitats and their vulnerability to military disruption. Such military disruption is discussed for each habitat against a background of its human occupancy and utilization, that is, of its routine civil use and abuse by man.

The present chapter is devoted to brief overviews both of the Earth and its habitats (). These descriptions are preceded by a summary of modern warfare and weaponry in order to suggest the character, level, and frequency with which military activities impinge upon man and nature.

For an annotated bibliography on the impact of military activities on the environment, the reader is referred to Westing & Lumsden (1979).

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