City Research Online

Abstract

This article engages the hidden nexus of interrelationships between fossil fuel corporations and the security state through the lens of ghost criminology. Amidst a contemporary ‘conspiracy panic’ that stigmatizes analyses of elite collusion and criminality the article argues for social scientific enquiry into state-corporate harms. The article employs the threefold framework of ‘spectral’ harms proposed by ghost criminology. First, the article considers the epistemological dimensions of the fossil fuel-security state nexus and how secrecy, propaganda and spying have been employed to maintain the status quo. Second, the article considers the fossil fuel-security state nexus temporally and argues that it is oriented towards foreclosing alternative futures. Third, the article analyses the interpersonal and inter-institutional infrastructures and connections that comprise this interrelationship. The final part of article develops the theoretical perspective of ghost criminology by engaging with recent work on the figure of the ‘spook’ as both ghost and spy, and the concept of the ‘deep state’.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2026, The author. This is the accepted manuscript of an article published by Oxford University Press. Please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions for information on re-use.
Publisher Keywords:	Conspiracy theories, Deep politics, Espionage, Ghost criminology, Parapolitics, State-corporate crime
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JA Political science (General) J Political Science > JC Political theory J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General)
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs School of Policy & Global Affairs > Department of Sociology & Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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