Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Mark GriffithsORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
This editorial calls for a reorientation of scholarly approaches to war by proposing the concept of “beforemaths”. While existing research has documented the effects of war and developed conceptualisations of military violence, the authors identify three shortcomings in current scholarship: the limited impact of documenting transgressions in a climate of impunity; the gradual uptake of conceptual interventions; and a tendency to study war retrospectively, beginning from its sites of violence. In response, the editorial proposes shifting attention from where military violence goes to where it is made. The notion of beforemaths refers to communities and places implicated at war's illusory beginnings and to the complex supply chains involved in preparing for war, including extraction, procurement, engineering, testing, and logistics. This perspective highlights how contemporary warfare is rooted in geological processes, particularly the extraction and use of critical minerals and fossil fuels, and how these processes already involve ecological degradation and public health effects. Focusing on beforemaths also enables an understanding of the war industry as ubiquitously local yet globally interconnected. Extensive networks of suppliers, contractors, and production sites link diverse communities to military production prior to combat. This orientation opens methodological possibilities, including the use of accessible data such as disclosure requirements and Freedom of Information requests, as well as engagement with civil society actions that trace and disrupt military supply chains. By foregrounding the anticipatory dimensions of war, the concept of beforemaths provides a way to connect extractive origins, industrial processes, and eventual military violence, and to orient research toward accountability and the conditions that enable war.
Author(s): Griffiths M, Rubaii K, Kallio KP, Riding J
Publication type: Editorial
Publication status: Published
Journal: Fennia
Year: 2026
Volume: 204
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-7
Online publication date: 16/06/2026
Acceptance date: 06/04/2026
ISSN (electronic): 1798-5617
Publisher: Geographical Society of Finland
URL: https://fennia.journal.fi/article/view/185565
DOI: 10.11143/fennia.185565
