Guns versus Climate: How Militarization Amplifies the Effect of Economic Growth on Carbon Emissions

Andrew K. Jorgenson, Brett Clark, Ryan P. Thombs, Jeffrey Kentor, Jennifer E. Givens, Xiaorui Huang, Hassan El Tinay, Daniel Auerbach and Matthew C. Mahutga

American Sociological Review, 2023, vol. 88, issue 3, 418-453

Abstract: Building on cornerstone traditions in historical sociology, as well as work in environmental sociology and political-economic sociology, we theorize and investigate with moderation analysis how and why national militaries shape the effect of economic growth on carbon pollution. Militaries exert a substantial influence on the production and consumption patterns of economies, and the environmental demands required to support their evolving infrastructure. As far-reaching and distinct characteristics of contemporary militarization, we suggest that both the size and capital intensiveness of the world’s militaries enlarge the effect of economic growth on nations’ carbon emissions. In particular, we posit that each increases the extent to which the other amplifies the effect of economic growth on carbon pollution. To test our arguments, we estimate longitudinal models of emissions for 106 nations from 1990 to 2016. Across various model specifications, robustness checks, a range of sensitivity analyses, and counterfactual analysis, the findings consistently support our propositions. Beyond advancing the environment and economic growth literature in sociology, this study makes significant contributions to sociological research on climate change and the climate crisis, and it underscores the importance of considering the military in scholarship across the discipline.

Keywords: climate change; environmental sociology; political-economic sociology; development sociology; militarization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00031224231169790 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:amsocr:v:88:y:2023:i:3:p:418-453

DOI: 10.1177/00031224231169790

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in American Sociological Review
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().