From Putin's War to Climate Change: Reimagining the Concept of Lebensraum

De la guerra de Putin al cambio climático: reimaginando el concepto de lebensraum

Throughout the 2020s, a series of armed conflicts have unfolded, destabilizing entire regions and posing an extraordinary challenge to the international order. Among the most prominent conflicts are Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the current Israeli government's war against the Palestinian militant organization Hamas in Gaza. In this article, those conflicts are analyzed through a political geographical lens, particularly focusing on the concept of Lebensraum, or “living space.” I will show how this concept—developed by German geographer Friedrich Ratzel in the 19th century— offers a key framework nowadays for better understanding the territorial drive underlying the warmongering logic in those conflicts. I will examine not only Russia’s invasion and Putin’s war against Ukraine through this lens, but also contexts of resistance, such as the territorial project of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrilla movement—which I suggest can be considered as an attempt at constructing a “revolutionary Lebensraum”—and, to a lesser extent, the Jihadist Islamic State (Isis) movement’s attempt to create an Islamic caliphate or a “Caliphatic or Jihadist Lebensraum” in the territories of Iraq and Syria in the mid-2010s. Drawing on that, I propose reimagining the concept of Lebensraum toward a more peaceful interpretation and application, removing it from its common conflict and war context. I do so through a biogeographical reading, extending it to the contemporary global climate crisis as a challenge for all humanity—a global struggle for our shared Lebensraum.