"Greening Defence": A Critical Investigation into the EU and NATO's Environmental Impact Targets Through the Concept of Reversibility

I aim to investigate the EU and NATO's environmental impact targets through the concept of reversibility by critically analysing how the environmental consequences of the defence sector challenge their green defence agenda. Reversibility, expressed in the works of Hannah Arendt and Hans Jonas and conceptualised by Hartmut Behr, advocates that it is necessary to rearticulate political agency in terms of pursuing non-irreversible policies. Using reversibility as a critical, deconstructive and reconstructive norm, I seek to investigate the ethical potential of a concept of reversibility in military environmental policy by investigating the EU and NATO's green defence agendas. This research will therefore focus on: (a) the development and evolution of the green defence agenda of the EU Climate Change and Defence Roadmap (2022/EEAS 2020) and NATO's Climate Change and Security Action Plan (2021); (b) the question of whether the avoidance of irreversible consequences has been considered by the EU and NATO; and (c) the added potential that a concept of reversibility and its political ethics could have. I will use a three-stage methodological approach. Firstly, theoretical engagement with the conceptual literature on reversibility. Secondly, process tracing through a genealogical investigation of policy documents relating to the Action Plan and Roadmap. Finally, triangulating the results of stages (1) and (2) with information through elite semi-structured interviews with key actors involved in the policymaking process. This will help uncover whether the reversibility of policy consequences was considered and how these agendas could be enriched ethically through an academically developed concept of reversibility.