In The Ecology Politic, Anthony Burke and Stefanie Fishel contend that the roots of our planetary crisis lie in the modern state: in its destructive entanglement with capitalism and its colonial legacies of extraction and oppression. This, in turn, has shaped global governance and international law, as they continue to fail to curb global heating, deforestation, and extinction. In a far-reaching critique of the foundational political theory of the modern state—the body politic—the authors insist that nothing less than a radically different model of the polity—an ecology politic—is needed if we are to escape this impasse.
Reviews
“The book’s wager is clear: that constitutional orders can be reimagined so that the flourishing of ecosystems is not a derivative policy aim but a constitutive value. Whether or not one shares their optimism, Burke and Fishel compel us to think beyond the self-imposed limits of political possibility.”
—Dipra Sarkhel and Dibyendu Sahana, Critical Inquiry
This is an ambitious and indeed visionary book that deserves to be read and discussed widely. There is both a richness and an urgency to the way in which the book’s messages are conveyed which brings the text to life.
—Jonathan Pickering, Environmental Politics
Among the powerful subarguments in this volume is that … the people who have rights is a precarious category defined by whom the powerful decide to humanize or not. Would we not all be better off, the authors ask, in a society that extended basic rights of existence at least to all living things, thereby removing entirely the risk of dehumanisation?
—Kirk Elsass, H-Net
This erudite and innovative work is not for the faint of heart.
—Ernest J Yanarella, Sustainability and Climate Change
Prizes
International Studies Association Theory Book Prize, 2026
Honorable Mention
“The selection committee was highly impressed by the originality, rigor, and engagement of the book’s argument … we appreciated how you coupled a sharp critique of anthropocentric thinking, practices, and institutions with a radical, audacious and yet pragmatic agenda for realizing the profound shift toward an ecology politic that the book imagines.”