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International Relations and Global Environmental Change

Review of the Burgeoning Literature on the Environment

The article reviews a burgeoning literature on the environment from two major groups of authors; on the one hand, International Relations scholars and, on the other, a host of `green writers' comprising mainly biologists, environmental activists and philosophers. Both groups share a tendency to focus on the same four or five environmental problems introduced by a `state of the environment reporting'. They perceive solutions mainly as top-down institutional arrangements above or between governments, and conclude with prescriptions for practitioners. Careful reading nevertheless reveals major contradictions between the theoretical assumptions of International Relations scholars and the empirical observations of green writers. While the former tend to place the nation-state at the centre of analysis, the latter group emphasizes the importance of a wide range of non-state actors who increasingly define local and transnational politics on the environment. Against this background, and with a brief introduction to recently arrived reflectivist approaches, a dialogue is suggested with the ambition of arriving at a study of global environmental change that consists not only of international, but also global politics on the environment. The article concludes with some suggestions for improvement.

Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 34, No. 2, 205-236 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/00108369921961834


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