@article{article_1885708, title={The impact of militarization of NATO countries on climate change: Investigation of the regulatory role of Institutional Quality}, journal={MTÜ Sosyal ve Beşeri Bilimler Dergisi}, volume={6}, pages={66–81}, year={2026}, url={https://izlik.org/JA48CW25GM}, author={Miçooğulları, Seyit Ali and Alancıoğlu, Erdal and Moalla, Maya}, keywords={Military expenditure, Institutional quality, Environmental Kuznets Curve, NATO countries, CO₂ emissions, CS-ARDL}, abstract={<p>The environmental effects of military expenditures have become a crucial but little-studied aspect of climate policy as it rises to all-time highs amid escalating geopolitical tensions, especially for NATO nations that account for the majority of global defence spending. This study specifically examines the moderating effects of institutional quality within the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework as it examines the effect of military spending on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions in 16 NATO member states from 1996 to 2023. The research takes into consideration slope heterogeneity, mixed orders of integration, and cross-sectional dependence using the Cross-Sectionally Augmented Autoregressive Distributed Lag (CS-ARDL) estimator. Six governance variables are used in Principal Component Analysis to create a composite index that measures institutional quality. The findings show that energy use, economic expansion, and military spending all considerably raise CO2 emissions over the short and long terms. However, as demonstrated by a negative and robust interaction term, excellent institutional quality not only directly improves environmental outcomes but also considerably reduces the emission-intensifying effect of military spending. Furthermore, the reduced long-run income elasticity compared to the short-run supports the validity of the EKC. These results imply that the environmental impact of militarization is significantly influenced by the quality of governance rather than being inevitable. The paper emphasizes the significance of incorporating institutional reforms into military and climate plans, providing NATO nations looking to balance environmental sustainability with security imperatives with timely policy insights. </p>}, number={1}