The Politics of Green Interventionism: The U.S. Southern Command and Its Military Involvement in the Amazon Basin

• In Event: Climate Policy, Public Opinion, and Governance

Abstract

The renewed global efforts to contain climate change have meant a gateway for states to wage environmental conflicts by adopting a green militarization approach. My research analyzes the international realm of this approach by focusing on the role that the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is seeking to play in the Amazon Basin. The attention of the American Armed Forces to environmental issues is not new since the U.S. Department of Defense has included climate change in one of the top priorities for the hemisphere since 2010. Critical military studies have found that there are currently two trends of green militarization: the first has largely taken a hard approach to addressing wildlife crime while the second is a softer approach based on counter-insurgency doctrine that promotes community engagement and development through international organizations funding this militarization of conservation. While existing studies focus on anti-poaching green militarization efforts in African countries, scholars have unobserved other expressions of the military role over the environment. My research explores the international militaristic involvement by focusing on a new trend: the interventionism in pursuit of the foreign environmental protection.

Author

• Juan Corredor-Garcia, CUNY Graduate Center