World on fire: the politics of napalm in the Global Cold War

Abstract

This essay discusses the ways in which napalm contributed to the militarisation of global landscapes during the 1960s and 1970s, shaped distinctly by the interrelated geopolitical dynamics of the Cold War, decolonisation, and the rise of global public opinion against napalm and other weapons of terror. Using case studies and primary documents from British Archives, I argue that napalm played a significant role in shaping multiple military landscapes during this period, not just in terms of its direct effects on people, places, and the natural environment, but as a result of the moral, cultural, and political consequences of those effects.