The Transformation from Classical Nationalism to Green Nationalism

Abstract

The climate crisis has created a context in which established nationalist categories are increasingly articulated through ecological concerns. This article examines how national identity, homeland/territory, sovereignty, national interest, development, security, citizenship, temporal horizons, and international relations are reconfigured in contemporary green-nationalist scholarship. Using theory-guided qualitative document analysis, this study draws on foundational nationalism scholarship and contemporary research on nationalism, environmentalism, and climate politics. The analysis identifies three substantive green-nationalist configurations—inclusive-civic, developmental-technological, and exclusionary-ecological—and distinguishes institutional forms, hybrid combinations, and symbolic greening as analytically distinct categories. The article argues that green nationalism should not be understood as the inevitable successor to classical nationalism but as a conditional ecological rearticulation of nationalist categories, shaped by identity structures, political institutions, economic and energy interests, climate vulnerability, and international pressures. By separating classification from ecological evaluation, the proposed framework provides a basis for comparing competing forms of green nationalism and for testing their emergence and consequences in future empirical research.