Ecocide, Speciesism, Vulnerability: Revisiting Positive Peace in the Anthropocene

Abstract

In line with the expansive, critical vision behind positive peace, this chapter develops an analytical framework for understanding the ties between ecocide and speciesism. I commence with thoughts on how ecocide is tied to “positive peace,” narrowly as a theoretical construct and broadly as an ethos driving the paths of scholar–practitioners in peace and conflict studies. While among the best-known examples recently of ecocide are the Amazon fires, the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef and of the Niger Delta, many other ecological disasters have been precipitated over the past decades by both state–corporate crime and by our individual failure to respect interdependence and to protect nature. Following a discussion of several prominent ecocides, I review the ethical and legal arguments driving the growing global movement which supports the recognition of ecocide as an international crime. The second part challenges prevalent speciesist beliefs and practices, materialized in individual and collective failures to protect nonhuman lives, which feeds into ecocides. The history of sexism and racism shows that the justifications used to render certain lives inferior (thus suited for subjugation) are strikingly similar to how speciesism operates: through strategic invisibilities and inconsistent standards which legitimate physical, structural, and epistemic violence. The third part filters the ties between ecocide and speciesism through vulnerability theory (with its insistence on dependency, interdependence, and state responsibility) and reflects on what a vulnerability-centered jurisprudence could contribute to prevention, repair, and accountability in the Anthropocene.