Proving Grounds : Militarized Landscapes, Weapons Testing, and the Environmental Impact of U.S. Bases

Proving Grounds brings together a wide range of scholars across disciplines and geographical borders to deepen our understanding of the environmental impact that the U.S. military presence has had at home and abroad. The essays in this collection survey the environmental damage caused by weapons testing and military bases to local residents, animal populations, and landscapes, and they examine the military’s efforts to close and repurpose bases―often as wildlife reserves. Together they present a complex and nuanced view that embraces the ironies, contradictions, and unintended consequences of U.S. militarism around the world. In complicating our understanding of the American military’s worldwide presence, the essayists also reveal the rare cases when the military is actually ahead of the curve on environmental regulation compared to the private sector. The result is the most comprehensive examination to date of the U.S. military’s environmental footprint―for better or worse―across the globe.

Edwin A. Martini is professor of history at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Agent Orange: History, Science, and the Politics of Uncertainty and Invisible Enemies: The American War on Vietnam, 1975–2000. The contributors are Yooil Bae, Leisl Carr Childers, Brandon C. Davis, Heejin Han, David G. Havlick, Katherine M. Keirns, Neil Oatsvall, Jennifer Liss Ohayon, and Daniel Weimer.