The Politics of the Armed Lifeboat: Militarized Adaptations to Climate Change as State Crime

• In Event: Theoretical Analyses of Green/Environmental Crimes

Abstract

Global climate change is the predominant social, economic, and political issue facing the world in the twenty-first century. In this paper, we examine the role of the state in response to the global climate crisis. Specifically, we address the military response of the United States government to climate change in the form of Pentagon and Department of Defense (DoD) initiatives, Executive Orders issued by the President and bills proposed to Congress. We combine the concept of state crime with two other theoretical frameworks: treadmill of destruction (Stretesky, Long and Lynch, 2014) and politics of the armed lifeboat (Parenti, 2011). We analyze crimes against humanity that are a direct result of the U.S. failure to heed warnings of climate change, which has resulted in extreme social volatility in the world’s most vulnerable countries. This civil unrest has forced the U.S. to intervene militarily to ensure stability, furthering the depth and breadth of these climate crimes. An ongoing preemptive counter-insurgency by the United States, rejection of climate refugees by the West and policies that promote war for resources represent a few examples of the climate crimes we examine.

Authors

• Casey James Schotter, Western Michigan University

• Ronald C Kramer, Western Michigan University