Abstract
The lack of historical military action on GHG emissions is underpinned not by a deficit of available technologies, but by an organisational and socio-psychological de-prioritisation of sustainability. Although current practices may be able to achieve some emissions reductions, it will remain difficult to deliver substantive and holistic ‘greening’ of the military without creating an organisational culture in which all personnel actively prioritise mitigation and adaptation across all defence functions and units. This chapter will highlight how military education provides a significant and resource-light method for supporting the behavioural change required to achieve this. It will outline the existence of relevant scholarship on military and environmental education, alongside well-developed epistemic networks, pedagogical knowledge and locus points for delivery of environmental learning across existing military education infrastructures. These contexts, it argues, generate valuable opportunities to deliver quick wins on sustainability knowledge and behavioural change across different points of the defence function. At the same time, it concludes, armed forces should still implement systemic training needs analysis programmes, with micro-level analyses of the environmental biases and educational needs of key functions, as well as macro-level analyses of the entire defence function.
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Jalili, D. (2022). Enhancing Military Sustainability Through Education: Balancing Quick Wins with Systemic Behavioural Change. In: Iacovino, G., Wigell, M. (eds) Innovative Technologies and Renewed Policies for Achieving a Greener Defence. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2186-6_8
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