Arenas, Alberto, Whitehouse, Hilary, and Hubbard, Malissa (2025) War against the future: The Sustainable Development Goals against empire. Journal of Environmental Education, 56 (5). pp. 345-348.

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Abstract

With the United States launching attacks against nuclear facilities in Iran, Russia’s open invasion of Ukraine, and Israel’s continued assault on Gaza, militarism is increasing in a world already facing ecological collapse. This article argues that these wars of aggression directly undermine the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which in 2025 celebrates its 10^th anniversary. Some of the main aggressors of today’s international wars—the United States, Russia, and Israel, and others, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia—have all endorsed the SDGs, including Goal 16, which stipulates that peace is a fundamental precondition for social, economic, and environmental development. Although sustainability is often framed as ecological or economic, its relationship to war tends to be neglected in public discourse. By reframing militarism as a sustainability crisis, this article confronts how perpetual war sabotages peace and the very conditions for a livable future.

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