Description
Is International Studies equipped with the conceptual vocabulary necessary to confront the colonial dimensions of contemporary environmental politics? This paper conducts a systematic qualitative review of how the language of "green colonialism" emerged within International Studies scholarship during a critical formative decade. Through critical discourse analysis of major IS journals (2005-2015), I trace the contested terrain of naming and theorizing the ways environmental agendas—from conservation to carbon markets—began to be understood as reproducing colonial patterns of extraction, dispossession, and epistemic violence.
The analysis reveals a striking temporal and geographic pattern: this decade marked a foundational period where practices of green grabbing, carbon colonialism, and fortress conservation were increasingly documented, yet explicit engagement with "green colonialism" as an analytic frame emerged slowly and unevenly across sub-fields. Scholars from the Global South and indigenous communities have led in developing this critical vocabulary, yet mainstream climate governance and environmental security literatures continue to favor depoliticized, technocratic language that obscures power asymmetries. Terms like "nature-based solutions," "green transitions," and "climate finance" circulate widely, often without interrogation of whose land, labor, and livelihoods underwrite these initiatives.
I argue that this formative decade (2005-2015) represents a critical juncture where IS began (but only began) to develop the conceptual vocabulary necessary to address environmental injustices. Examining this period reveals both the seeds of critical language and the persistent dominance of depoliticized frameworks. For International Studies to be "ready for what comes next," understanding how and why certain vocabularies emerged (or failed to emerge) during this crucial decade provides essential insights. The paper concludes by reflecting on what this foundational period reveals about the discipline's trajectory and the work still needed to center anti-colonial language in environmental politics scholarship.
