The Climate of War: Violence, Warfare and Climatic Reductionism

National security agencies and other interested parties now often regard conflict as the inevitable consequence of climate change. This inclination to reduce war to the vicissitudes of climate is not new however. Here I examine some of the earlier ways in which violence was attributed to climatic conditions, particularly in the United States, and trace links between these older advocates of climatic determinism and the recent writings of those insisting that climate change will usher in a grim world of chronic warfare. It ends by drawing attention to the writings of some critics who are troubled by the ease with which climatic reductionism is capturing the public imagination.

History of biological warfare and bioterrorism.

Bioterrorism literally means using microorganisms or infected samples to cause terror and panic in populations. Bioterrorism had already started 14 centuries before Christ, when the Hittites sent infected rams to their enemies. However, apart from some rare well-documented events, it is often very difficult for historians and microbiologists to differentiate natural epidemics from alleged biological attacks, because: (i) little information is available for times before the advent of modern microbiology; (ii) truth may be manipulated for political reasons, especially for a hot topic such as a biological attack; and (iii) the passage of time may also have distorted the reality of the past. Nevertheless, we have tried to provide to clinical microbiologists an overview of some likely biological warfare that occurred before the 18th century and that included the intentional spread of epidemic diseases such as tularaemia, plague, malaria, smallpox, yellow fever, and leprosy. We also summarize the main events that occurred during the modern microbiology era, from World War I to the recent 'anthrax letters' that followed the World Trade Center attack of September 2001. Again, the political polemic surrounding the use of infectious agents as a weapon may distort the truth. This is nicely exemplified by the Sverdlovsk accident, which was initially attributed by the authorities to a natural foodborne outbreak, and was officially recognized as having a military cause only 13 years later.

Recueil tres-exact et curieux de tout ce qui s'est fait & passé de singulier & memorable en l'assemblée generale des Estats tenus à Paris en l'année 1614 . & particulierement en chacune seance du tiers ordre. Avec le cahier dudit ordre, & autres pieces concernans le mesme sujet. Par Me Florimond Rapine, seigneur de Foucherainne & Lathenon, conseiller & premier advocat du Roy au bailliage & siege presidial de St Pierre le Moustier, & l'un des deputez pour le tiers Estat dudit bailliage. Dedié a monseigneur le premier president, garde des sceaux de France...

[Acte. 1651]

« Memoires des choses remarquables advenues à Rhodes pendant le siege premier d'icelle, souz Mahomet II, empereur des Turcs, avec une chronologie turquesque en laquelle est sommairement representée la guerre de ses successeurs Baiazeht et Zizimir frères,... par Guillaume CAOURSIN, Flamandt, chancellier de l'Ordre de St Jean de Hierusalem ou de Rhodes ; de la traduction de G. P. P. b[aron] DU R[YAN], gentilhomme bourbonois, à Monseigneur le duc de Nevers et de Rethelois, » Charles de Gonzague.

Contient : « Livre second de la guerre des successeurs de Mahomet II, et commencement de la Chronologie Turcique »

The orientalist sore : biomedical discourses, capital and urban warfare in the colonial present

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.