Occupying Island: Resisting Militarization in a No-War Zone

By: Simone Maddanu and Aide Esu

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Synopsis: This book offers an analytical perspective of the unfolding militarization in the Italian island of Sardinia, grounded in extensive ethnographic fieldwork, and using in-depth documentation analysis. Since the late 1950s, the island, which is the second largest in the Mediterranean, has been one of the main hubs for weapons testing and interforce training for the Italian armed forces and NATO. The book retraces the extent and the significance of military bases in Sardinia, and the rise of local collective actions and resistance. This case study offers relevant insights to understand the strategic role of islands in the post-war military space control, more specifically on geo-strategic policy in the Mediterranean and its effects on military/civil relations. The relevance of the militarization of islands shed a light on opaque institutional decision processes that reinforce the figure of subaltern subjects - relegated to peripheral spaces and subdued to extractivism, dependency, and exclusion. It will be of interest to students and researchers of sociology, sociology of environment and risk, globalization, social movement studies, postcolonial studies and political studies.