Militarism, Climate Justice, and Peace-building

“The same movements that are resisting militarism are building an alternative vision and world.”

Grassroots International Co-ED Chung-Wha recently explored the critical connections between militarism, climate justice, and environmental peacebuilding at a session organized by the Environmental Peacebuilding Association for its fourth international conference.

Chung-Wha started off addressing her own positionality, as an immigrant from Korea whose family immigrated to the US during a US-backed military dictatorship in Korea in the 1970s. While a student, she got involved in activism through working on a campaign to get US troops and nukes out of Korea. She came to see how military, economic, and political interventions all fused together to hold up the system of military dictatorship that militarized the whole country. She also realized that Korea was not alone; this was a global pattern.

Chung-Wha continues to see these intersections through her work at Grassroots International, which supports social movements on the frontlines the multiple forms of violence inherent in the systems upholding global power structures. Informed by the experience of our social movement partners, Chung-Wha sees rising repression against frontline communities and their defenders and the mounting climate crisis as inextricably linked and mutually reinforcing:

“Militaries help sustain fossil fuel-based economic systems by waging war against people and nature and, while doing that, emitting all this carbon, which makes climate change worse. This then increases the likelihood of conflict, whether it’s oil wars or water wars, which then increases militarization – which repeats the whole cycle again.”

Thankfully, even in the face of mounting assaults, social movements are responding in creative, coordinated, and effective ways: “The same movements that are resisting militarism are building an alternative vision and world… It’s not just lack of bombs [that movements are working toward] but strong, self-determined, self-sufficient communities with vibrant self-governance structures.” In dialogue with Patrick Hiller from the War Prevention Initiative, Chung-Wha went on to give a number of concrete examples, from Puerto Rico to Palestine, as well as discussing how funders and others can be part of these critical efforts.

Watch the recording of this powerful discussion now.