Armed ‘Green’ Disaster Capitalism: How the ‘Climate Conflict’ Narrative Sustains War and Socioecological Catastrophe

Despite consistent debunking, climate conflict narratives remain dominant in Euro-American great power discourse and practice. This article reveals the role of these narratives in justifying capitalist climate strategies and technologies, and their application to the military. We argue that the branding of armed forces as ‘green’ and central to the ‘fight’ against climate change is an expression of ‘disaster capitalism’: now armed and greened to advance geopolitical and industry objectives amid climate breakdown. The article demonstrates the supply-web impact and hydrocarbon entanglement of ‘renewable energy’, and how such false solutions and extractive technologies are integrated into NATO and EU militaries to ‘decarbonise’ their operations. We identify five discursive and material practices by which armed green disaster capitalism—the continuation of war by ‘green’ means—is solidifying in ways that only worsen socioecological catastrophes. The article concludes with a discussion of community-based and inter/national policy approaches that would begin a process of real conflict prevention and climate change mitigation.