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The temporal stability and developmental differences in the environmental impacts of militarism: the treadmill of destruction and consumption-based carbon emissions

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Abstract

This study examines the relationship between national-level militarism and consumption-based carbon dioxide emissions. We analyze panel data from 1990 to 2010 for 81 nations to determine whether the magnitude of the effects of (1) military expenditures as percent of total gross domestic product and (2) military personnel as percent of total labor force on carbon emissions change over time. Results of two-way fixed effects models highlight the temporal stability of the environmental impacts of both national-level military characteristics. The findings also reveal that the effect of military expenditures on emissions is larger in the more developed OECD nations than in the developing non-OECD nations. Overall, the results support the treadmill of destruction perspective, which suggests that the nations’ militaries are an important social institution to consider in sustainability science research on the human drivers of global environmental change.

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Notes

  1. Scholars have highlighted that military service historically provided a means to achieve upward mobility, which helped decrease social inequality and enhanced measures of well-being (Magnum and Ball 1989; Teachman and Call 1996). However, recent scholarship indicates that as military expenditures are directed toward high-tech weaponry, rather than personnel, income inequality has increased (Kentor et al. 2012).

  2. Other recent research has instead focused on the environmental impacts of military expenditures per solider (Jorgenson and Clark 2009; Jorgenson et al. 2010), which is treated as an indicator of the capital intensity of nations’ militaries (see also Kentor et al. 2012). For the overall sample in the present study, military expenditures per soldier are correlated with gross domestic product per capita above 0.9. In unreported models of emissions that include military expenditures per solider and gross domestic product per capita, the estimated effect of the former on emissions is nonsignificant and close to null, while the estimated effect of the latter is positive and highly statistically significant. If gross domestic product per capita is excluded as a predictor, the estimated effect of military expenditures per soldier on consumption-based carbon emissions is positive and highly statistically significant. These results are likely due to the close-to-perfect collinearity between gross domestic product per capita and military expenditures per solider for the current study’s sample (Allison 1999).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Environmental Studies Program, Boston College, McGuinn Hall 426, 140 Common Wealth Avenue, Chestnut Hill, MA, 02467-3807, USA

    Andrew K. Jorgenson

  2. Department of Sociology and Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA

    Brett Clark

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  1. Andrew K. Jorgenson
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  2. Brett Clark
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Correspondence to Andrew K. Jorgenson.

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Handled by Jin Sato, The University of Tokyo, Japan.

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Jorgenson, A.K., Clark, B. The temporal stability and developmental differences in the environmental impacts of militarism: the treadmill of destruction and consumption-based carbon emissions. Sustain Sci 11, 505–514 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-015-0309-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-015-0309-5

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