Nationalism and Climate Obstruction

Since at least the French Revolution, nationalism has remained the dominant ideology around which domestic and international politics have been oriented. It has thus had a considerable impact on matters which should in principle transcend it, such as climate change policy and politics.

This working group brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines, methodologies, and geographies to analyze the relationship between nationalism and climate change, with a particular focus on the forces and processes of obstruction to climate action. It brings together existing cross-disciplinary research at the complex intersection of nationalism, misinformation campaigns, corporate lobbying/think tanks and climate obstruction counter- movements as a particularly destructive combination hampering climate efforts at different scales.

Outline

The Nationalism and Climate Obstruction Working Group focuses and coordinates transdisciplinary research at the intersection of nationalism and climate policy and politics. There is already an informal group of around 30 scholars from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and geographical contexts who have been exploring the relationship between climate change and nationalism, and to some extent the repercussions of this nexus on
climate obstruction, since 2020.

The working group pays particular attention to the way nationalism informs and permeates the institutions and policies of countries whose populations are, and will be increasingly, affected by climate impacts. It also researches the interconnection between non-institutional forces, such as corporate groups, lobbies and think tanks, and “national” politics through strategies and tactics of climate obstruction.

In particular, the working group focuses on investigating the various way in which restricted notions of “national interest” can derail climate policies, including during international negotiations. The working group also examines the various ways in which nationalism can be used with differing goals and purposes by investigating whether forms of “green nationalism” are feasible in attempts to counteract climate obstruction.

Forthcoming research projects

From mid/late September, the working group will begin to propose collaborative projects on nationalism and climate obstruction (see Preliminary key questions), with the objective of publishing a special issue or a collected volume (target journals: Climatic action, Frontiers in Political Science, …).

At the same time, the working group will also call for all CSSN members to put forward new ideas, perspectives, suggestions, and research inputs gravitating around this working group’s main areas of interest.

Possibilities to be explored:

• Collaboration with other working groups on specific projects.
• Collaborations with the IPCC on processes of obstruction using nationalist frameworks (resistance to climate action has often built up power bases relying on nationalism).

Preliminary key questions:

• How do domestic and international actors use nationalist arguments to avoid committing to climate action?
• Whose economic and political actors strive to capture the rise and spread of the most obstructive forms of nationalism, such as long-established forms of “resource nationalism” and the current emergence of “fossil fascism”?
• Whose interests do these trends represent?
• Can “green nationalism” actually emerge among state and nonstate actors? How can it be directed toward pro-climate practices beyond greenwashing?
• Could transnational networks and other linkages directly or indirectly informing state level nationalist politics be identified?
• How does “fossil fascism” manifest itself?
• What national strategies are used to contrast effective climate action in different countries and internationally?