The Association for East Asian Environmental History, of which two of us were previously the president, is preparing to expand into the Asian Association for Environmental History (AAEH) in 2023, as I chair its Founding Committee (http://www.aeaeh.org/index.htm). As a socio-economic and environmental historian, I myself, living in Japan at the eastern end of Asia within Eurasia, am deeply concerned about the devastating situation that is currently unfolding at the western end of Asia.

People around the world are heartbroken and amazed at the gravity of the situation in Ukraine, a war with a whole new geopolitical composition: the EU and NATO versus Russia. Ukraine itself is seen as a great barrier between the two sides, and its people are being slaughtered and driven out. How should this war really be understood?

There are various aspects that cannot be understood by the old power politics. For example, there is the reality of a global economy that creates extraordinary economic inequality, such that the richest 1% of the world's population controls 40% of the world's wealth. The unnatural concentration of wealth may be creating what I might call an inexplicable "resource war".

It is precisely from this perspective that an environmentally historical examination of the situation is indispensable. This workshop will be held for two hours by experts in economic, medical, and environmental history research from Slovenia, Taiwan, and Japan.

Registration is required at https://forms.office.com/r/WJTR7Xu5Bz.

Satoshi Murayama