WAR AND SUSTAINABILITY: THE TWO-WAY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONFLICT AND UNSUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Keywords:
Sustainability, war, armed conflict, environment, sustainable developmentAbstract
Wars and armed conflicts are inherently destructive, and their impacts extend far beyond military resources and intended targets. Generally speaking, the damage caused by wars and conflict extend even beyond civilian populations and facilities, this spillover often referred to as collateral damage, there are numerous additional victims of wars and conflicts, which includes animals, plants, natural resources, biodiversity, and climate systems and ecosystems. Wars and conflicts, which may represent both drivers and consequences of shortcomings in Sustainable development goals (SDG), specifically SDG16, which has to do with (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions Wars and other conflicts also negatively affect the progress across of almost all other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including poverty reduction, health and well-being, food security, economic development, education, equity as well as goals related to natural resources and the environment. Consequently, wars and other conflicts constitute major barriers to achieving sustainable development. The consequences of wars and armed conflicts on global sustainability, natural resources, biodiversity, and climate systems are widespread, long-lasting, and potentially intergenerational. Although these impacts have received increasing attention in international documents and protocols, they continue to be inadequately addressed by military powers that often fail to safeguard even civilian populations. The most effective mitigation strategy for the sustainability impacts of wars and armed conflicts is prevention; however, such efforts frequently fail. Regarding the environmental consequences of wars and armed conflicts, we argue that the current limited initiatives for documenting these impacts should be expanded into an independent global surveillance system to systematically identify, monitor, analyse, and inform policies and interventions. We also call for sustainability-related taxation of military industries to partially and pre-emptively compensate for their destructive contributions to planetary sustainability.
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