CIAO DATE: 07/2012
Volume: 88, Issue: 3
May 2012
Introduction (PDF)
Bernice Lee, Robert Falkner
Environmental threats are bringing new geopolitical, economic and technological challenges to an already unstable world. We are entering a period of intensified environmental stress, in the form of accelerated ecological degradation and greater risk of shortage and disruption in energy and food supplies, as well as heightened political tensions over control of and access to resources. Given these complex global challenges and the impending Rio+20 conference, it is time to reflect on what International Relations scholarship can contribute to our understanding of the global politics of sustainability. This special issue of International Affairs brings together established scholars who have made important contributions to research on international politics and environmental sustainability.
Emerging powers, North–South relations and global climate politics (PDF)
Andrew Hurrell, Sandeep Sengupta
There is a widespread perception that power is shifting in global politics and that emerging powers are assuming a more prominent, active and important role. This article examines the role of emerging powers such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa (BASIC) in climate change politics and the extent to which their rise makes the already difficult problem of climate change still more intractable - due to their rapid economic development, growing power-political ambitions, rising greenhouse gas emissions and apparent unwillingness to accept global environmental 'responsibility'. By reviewing the developments in global climate politics between the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and Rio+20, this article unsettles the image of a clear shift in power, stressing instead the complexity of the changes that have taken place at the level of international bargaining as well as at the domestic and transnational levels.
International political economy and the environment: back to the basics? (PDF)
Eric Helleiner, Jennifer Clapp
Three trends that are deserving of more attention from scholars of international political economy and the environment (IPEE) include: the globalization of financial markets; the rise of newly powerful states such as China and India in the global economy; and the recent emergence of high and volatile commodity prices. Each of these structural trends - as well as their interrelationships - have important environmental consequences whose closer study enhances our understanding of the relationship between the international political economy and the environment.
Global environmentalism and the greening of international society (PDF)
Robert Falkner
Have environmental values become part of the normative structure of international society? Has the rise of global environmentalism led to a greening of international society? This article engages English School theory in an effort to examine the impact that global environmentalism has had on the social structure of International Relations. It argues that a primary institution of global environmental responsibility is emerging, and explores the relationship and tensions between environmental responsibility and the established primary institutions of sovereignty, international law and the market.
Institutional diffusion in international environmental affairs (PDF)
Alexander Ovodenko, Robert O Keohane
This article explores institutional diffusion in international environmental governance, specifying the conditions under which an existing set of institutions provides a template for new institutions. Prior institutional experiences can help to resolve bargaining problems, reduce transaction costs and provide information about likely performance. The authors discuss five examples of institutional diffusion in international environmental affairs and outline some causal mechanisms and conditions that facilitate or block the diffusion of institutional characteristics.
Engaging the public and the private in global sustainability governance (PDF)
Kenneth W Abbott
This article argues that states, and especially international organizations, should actively support private sustainability governance (PSG) as part of the institutional framework for sustainable development, while steering private and public-private schemes towards good organizational practices and the pursuit of public goals. Engagement with PSG would help international institutions pursue their sustainability missions more effectively, promote the emergence of effective and legitimate private schemes, manage fragmentation, promote experimentation and learning, and enhance citizen participation.
Institutional design and UNEP reform: historical insights on form, function and financing (PDF)
Maria Ivanova
The global environmental governance architecture is set to undergo major reforms, with the main decisions on reform to be taken at the June 2012 Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. Discussions on reform have focused on whether the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) should retain its institutional status as a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly, or be transformed into a specialized agency - a World Environment Organization - of the UN. The choice of institutional form, however, cannot be made without reference to both the needs of global environmental governance, and the factors impeding the effectiveness of the current governance architecture. This article argues that the reasons for UNEP's shortcomings have little inherent connection to its institutional form, and cannot be resolved simply by a change in status. Deeper, yet probably easier to accomplish, reforms should focus on enabling UNEP to fulfill its intended role as an effective anchor institution for the global environmental governance architecture.
Complex global governance and domestic policies: four pathways of influence (PDF)
Steven Bernstein, Benjamin Cashore
Many of the most pressing global environmental problems, including climate change, forest degradation and biodiversity loss, are governed by an array of mechanisms - legal, non-legal, governmental and non-governmental - in complex arrangements. Examining the combined effects of these international and transnational efforts on domestic or firm policies and practices requires expanding a focus on regime 'compliance' and 'effectiveness' to 'influence' factors from beyond state borders. To facilitate such a move, the authors develop a framework that distinguishes four distinct pathways through which actors and institutions influence domestic policies: international rules; international norms and discourse; creation of, or interventions in, markets; and direct access to domestic policy processes. Propositions are then developed on the conditions under which, and processes through which, actors and institutions affect domestic and firm policies and practices along each pathway. The framework is applied to the case of forest governance.
The changing fortunes of differential treatment in the evolution of international environmental law (PDF)
Lavanya Rajamani
This article traces the evolution of international environmental law and dialogue in the four decades from Stockholm, 1972, to Rio+20, 2012, with a focus on the changing dynamics of the discourse between developed and developing countries, and the corresponding interpretational shifts in the application of differential treatment in international environmental law - climate change law in particular.