Economic Planning and War Economy in the Context of Ecological Crisis

The terms economic planning and war economy are familiar to historians. They describe practices and modes of government found in many countries during the 20th century. Between the 1930s and the 1970s, these terms were the subject of considerable intellectual debate — though often forgotten since — in an attempt to define them or to connect them. Today, they are being revisited in light of a dual interrogation. First, economic planning is being presented as a possible solution to the ecological crisis by reorganizing production and consumption to keep in line with the objectives of reducing carbon emissions and preserving biodiversity. The concept of the war economy is sometimes added (sometimes referred to as "ecological war") to mean that, as in a war, the whole of the economy's organization must be oriented towards a single objective: victory, the only guarantee of survival for the majority of the population. War economy has been used in a second sense in relation to the environmental crisis to highlight the convergence of rising energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine and climate objectives to reduce carbon emissions.