Marshall Islands

Few places in the world have suffered the social, political, economic, and environmental consequences of war like the Marshall Islands. Over the last century in particular, this broad scattering of 34 atolls and islands in the central Pacific Ocean has witnessed a succession of foreign occupations whose rule and passing have left behind little beyond destruction and death. The Republic of Marshall Islands exists today as an idyllic landscape impoverished by imperialism, scarred by war, and poisoned by nuclear weapons testing.

Roughly 70,000 people currently live in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), mostly on the two largest atolls of Majuro and Kwajalein, at 50% and 20% of the total Marshallese population, respectively. The remaining 30% of the population is distributed across the RMI’s 24 other ...