Instrumentalizing crisis as capital : eco-humanitarian rentierism and the global politics of aid

TSOURAPAS, Gerasimos; EL-ANIS, Imad

doi:10.1093/ia/iiaf185

Instrumentalizing crisis as capital : eco-humanitarian rentierism and the global politics of aid

dc.contributor.author	TSOURAPAS, Gerasimos
dc.contributor.author	EL-ANIS, Imad
dc.date.accessioned	2025-10-30T17:27:09Z
dc.date.available	2025-10-30T17:27:09Z
dc.date.issued	2025
dc.description	Published online: 20 October 2025	en
dc.description.abstract	This article introduces the concept of ‘eco-humanitarian rentierism’ to explain how states facing intersecting crises of climate change and forced displacement strategically mobilize crisis narratives to extract external resources. Building on theories of rentierism, migration diplomacy and environmental politics, it argues that states convert ecological and humanitarian risk into geopolitical, economic and symbolic capital by aligning with donor priorities and performing responsibility within fragmented global governance regimes. Through a comparative analysis of Egypt and Jordan, the article draws on policy documents, official speeches and donor agreements to trace how governments construct and operationalize crisis narratives that attract finance and international recognition. These rent-seeking practices rely on crisis narration, discursive alignment and performative compliance, and are rewarded within institutional architectures marked by asymmetry, fragmentation and donor discretion. While these strategies generate short-term gains in funding, visibility and diplomatic leverage, they risk reinforcing dependency, marginalizing affected populations and displacing longer-term redistributive reform. The analysis advances International Relations debates on agency under constraint, the strategic behaviours of weaker states and the reproduction of global hierarchies through the political economy of aid. By bringing together debates on environmental politics, migration governance and the international political economy of crisis, the article offers an original framework for understanding how global South states navigate and reproduce structural hierarchies in the international system. It highlights the political and ethical stakes of converting crisis into capital, and calls for more integrated, participatory and equitable approaches to global crisis governance that prioritize long-term resilience over transactional management.	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	International affairs, 2025, Art. iiaf185, OnlineFirst	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1093/ia/iiaf185
dc.identifier.issn	0020-5850
dc.identifier.issn	1468-2346
dc.identifier.other	iiaf185
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1814/93903
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.orcid.putcode	1814/93443:195667672
dc.publisher	Oxford University Press	en
dc.relation.ispartof	International affairs	en
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	en
dc.rights.license	Attribution 4.0 International	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subject	Energy and environment	en
dc.subject	International governance, law, and ethics	en
dc.subject	Political economy and economics	en
dc.subject	Middle East and North Africa	en
dc.title	Instrumentalizing crisis as capital : eco-humanitarian rentierism and the global politics of aid	en
dc.type	Article	en
dspace.entity.type	Publication
person.identifier.orcid	0000-0002-2746-9752
person.identifier.other	57153
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