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Department of Social Sciences

New Research Project "Greening Military?"

Vier Militärflugzeuge fliegen Kunstflüge und hinterlassen sichtbare Emissionen © Quelle: Onkelglocke über Pixabay

VW Foundation funds research project on the tension between defense and climate protection

The military sector is one of the world's largest CO2 emitters and therefore contributes significantly to the climate crisis. The current geopolitical situation and the military build-up give rise to the question of the extent to which this threatens society's climate protection goals.

"Greening Military?" reconstructs the modern military's relationship to nature from a historical, present and future perspective. The first phase of the project involves systematizing and surveying the military metabolism to date. Based on these results, the second phase of the project will identify and critically discuss socially negotiated greening strategies. Finally, in the third phase of the project, a traveling exhibition on the military-nature nexus will be designed.

Frank Reichherzer from the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr and Christof Mauch from the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at LMU Munich are involved in the project. This planned combination of military research and socio-ecological transformation research remains unique.

The project will run for 36 months and is expected to start on May 1, 2024.

The project is funded by the VW Foundation.

Further information on the project can be found here.