@article{2025:langer:not_all_,
title = {(Not) all is fair in love and war: Norbert Elias’s theory of civilisation, military violence, and the protection of the environment in war},
year = {2025},
note = {Military force has historically shaped human societies and their
environments, often leaving profound and lasting ecological impacts.
The environmental consequences of military activities – even in
peacetime – can endure for generations. This paper examines the
environmental dimensions of warfare in relation to the development of
rules and regulations under international humanitarian law that
constrain violence against the natural environment during war and
armed conflict. We situate military practices and legal constraints
within Norbert Elias’s framework of the civilising process and
explore the intertwined processes of de‑civilisation and
civilisation inherent in modern warfare. We argue that acts of ecocide
represent, on one hand, a regression into unrestrained, primal
destruction that de-civilises humanity’s relationship with
extra‑human nature. On the other hand, particularly since the Second
World War, humankind has been engaged in a process that establishes
boundaries rendering environmental destruction by the military both
definable and recognisable as a transgression. In this way, such
destruction is neither ignored nor left unacknowledged; it is no
longer regarded as self‑evident or inevitable, nor defined as a
necessary evil or mere ‘collateral damage’ but rather understood
and treated as a ‘wrongful act’. This evolution signals an
expansion of ethical and legal boundaries consistent with Elias’s
insights into the codification of restraint in human behaviour.},
journal = {Culture, Practice & Europeanization},
pages = {222--244},
author = {Langer, Kerrin and Reichherzer, Frank},
volume = {10},
number = {2}
}