Imperialism, Ecological Imperialism, and Green Imperialism: An Overview

Abstract

This article aims to explore the relationship between imperialism and political ecology, the identifying characteristics of the historical development of ecological imperialism, and the ecosocial implications of its cosmetic adaptation—namely, green imperialism—in a context of growing threat and biophysical concern. We first provide a succinct updated definition of imperialism based on world-systems analysis, which serves to understand imperialism as the system of economic domination of global capitalism, placing countries at the core of the system at one pole of extraction of labor, energy, and material resources, and those at the periphery at the opposite pole of supply. This hierarchization helps to understand ecological imperialism as a series of externalizations that the core tends to implement globally, transforming the periphery into a drain for these externalizations. As part of it, green imperialism appears as a new mode of accumulation aimed at preserving the imperial mode of living in the core legitimized by supposedly environmentally beneficial policies and discourses. We conclude by addressing the need for a fruitful dialogue between the critiques of ecologically unequal exchange and the radical positions of contemporary degrowth in order to reduce the most harmful productive sectors and favor a socially just transition and development in the Global South.