University of Florida
INR 6352
Spring 2004

International Environmental Relations

Dr. Samuel Barkin
Office: 334 Anderson Hall.
Office Hours: M 2-4pm, W noon-2pm.
X2-0262, ext. 222.
barkin@polisci.ufl.edu

    This course in an introduction to theories of international environmental politics. This is a course about international politics, not about the global environment per se . It focuses on the question of how environmental management and regulation happens in a world of sovereign states. It deals with various ways of thinking about this question. While specific international environmental issues will be used as illustrations, the course is organized around theoretical approaches, rather than issues.

    You will be expected to have done the week's reading before each class, and to come to class prepared to discuss the reading in depth. In the student presentation weeks, you will be reading the papers of those of your colleagues who are presenting that week. You will be expected not only to have read the papers in depth, but to be prepared to comment on them in some detail. You will also be expected to track one particular international environmental issue through the semester, and to report on it occasionally in class. Class participation, including these reports and commentary on your colleagues’ papers, will comprise 30% of the final grade.

    A further 20% of the final grade will come from short papers written in response to particular weeks’ readings. You will be expected to do 4 papers, worth 5% each. The papers should be between 500 and 800 words long. Everyone will do a paper for the class of January 14, and for 3 of the following 9 weeks (including one paper for either March 24 or March 31). These should be critical papers, rather than literature reviews; they should analyze the weeks reading, rather than describing them. Papers should be submitted to me by email at least 3 hours before the beginning of class.
        
    The other half of your grade will be determined by a research paper. This paper, of roughly 6,000 words, will examine one particular issue in international environmental politics (this can be a particular environmental issue, a particular organization, or a particular political problem that affects the management of the environment internationally). It should apply the insights of the various course themes and readings to its particular problem.

    A prospectus of the paper, of roughly 1,000 words, is due at the beginning of class on February 18. A draft of the full paper is due in class on March 31. You will present your findings in one of the last three classes of the semester. The final paper is due at the beginning of the last class on April 21. More detailed instructions will be provided in due course. The prospecus will be graded, and will comprise 10% of the final grade, as will the presentation. The final paper will comprise the remaining 30% of the grade.  

Two books have been ordered through the bookstore:
    -Oran Young, Governance in World Affairs (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999).
    -Elizabeth DeSombre, The Global Environment and World Politics (London: Continuum, 2002).

All other readings will be available either online, on reserve or on loan from me.


Class Schedule


January 7:  Introduction


January 14:  Environmental Politics and International Relations
        -Young, Governance in World Affairs, pp. 1-23.
        -DeSombre, The Global Environment and World Politics, pp. 31-52.
        -Stephen Krasner, Structural Conflict: The Third World Against Global Liberalism (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1985), pp. 227-264.
        -Samuel Barkin and George Shambaugh, "Hypotheses on the International Politics of Common Pool Resources" and "Conclusions: Common Pool Resources and International Environmental Negotiations," in Barkin and Shambaugh, eds., Anarchy and the Environment: The International Relations of Common Pool Resources (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999), pp. 1-25 and 176-198. 
        -Eric Laferriere, "Emancipating International Relations Theory: An Ecological Perspective." Millennium vol. 25 (1996), pp. 53-75. 

January 21:  Framing the Problem
        -DeSombre, The Global Environment and World Politics, pp. 1-6.
        -Young, Governance in World Affairs, pp. 189-216.
        -Thomas Princen, Michael Maniates, and Ken Conca, “Confronting Consumption,” in Princen, Maniates and Conca, eds., Confronting Consumption (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002), pp. 1-20. 
        -Steven Bernstein, "Ideas, Social Structure, and the Compromise of Liberal Environmentalism." European Journal of International Relations vol. 6 (2000). 
        -Karen Litfin, "The Greening of Sovereignty: An Introduction," in Litfin, ed., The Greening of Sovereignty in World Politics (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998), pp. 1-27. 
        -Matthew Paterson, Understanding Global Environmental Politics: Domination, Accumulation, Resistance (New York: St. Martin’s, 2000), pp. 11-65. 
        -Frances Cairncross, Costing the Earth: The Challenge for Governments, the Opportunities for Business (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992), pp. 17-62. 

January 28:  Science, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
        -DeSombre, The Global Environment and World Politics, pp. 53-70.
        -Dale Jamieson, "Scientific Uncertainty and the Political Process." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences #545 (1996), pp. 35-43.  
        -Michael Thompson and Steve Rayner. "Risk and Governance Part I: The Discourses of Climate Change." Government and Opposition vol. 33 (1998), pp. 139-166. 
        -Karen Litfin, "Framing Science: Precautionary Discourse and the Ozone Treaties." Millennium vol. 24 (1995), pp. 251-277. 
        -Peter Haas, "Obtaining International Environmental Protection Through Epistemic Consensus." Millennium vol. 19 (1990), pp. 347-364. 
        -Carolyn Merchant, Radical Ecology (New York: Routledge, 1992), pp. 41-60. 

February 4:  Non-State Actors
        -DeSombre, The Global Environment and World Politics, pp. 71-94.
        -Paul Wapner, "Politics Beyond the State: Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics." World Politics vol. 47 (1995), pp. 311-340. 
        -Elizabeth DeSombre, Domestic Sources of International Environmental Policy: Industry, Environmentalists, and U.S. Power (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000), pp. 21-49. 
        -Robert Falkner, “Private Environmental Governance and International Relations: Exploring the Links,” Global Environmental Politics 3(2) (May 2003), pp. 72-87. 
        -Jeffrey Leonard, Pollution and the Struggle for World Product: Multinational Corporations, Environment, and International Comparative Advantage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 54-116. 
        -Ronie Garcia-Johnson, Exporting Environmentalism: U.S. Multinational Chemical Corporations in Brazil and Mexico (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000), pp. 1-25; 187-200. 

February 11: International Environmental Regimes 1:  Design
        -Young, Governance in World Affairs, pp. 24-78.
        -Ronald Mitchell, "Regime Design Matters: International Oil Pollution and Treaty Compliance." International Organization vol. 48 (1994), pp. 425-458. 
    -Robert Keohane, Peter Haas, and Marc Levy, "The Effectiveness of International Environmental Institutions," in Haas, Keohane, and Levy, eds, Institutions for the Earth: Sources of Effective International Environmental Protection (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1993), pp. 3-24.
        -Marc Levy, Robert Keohane, and Peter Haas, "Improving the Effectiveness of International Environmental Institutions," in Haas, Keohane, and Levy, eds., Institutions for the Earth , pp. 397-426. 
        -Barbara Connolly, "Increments for the Earth: The Politics of Environmental Aid," in Robert Keohane and Marc Levy, eds., Institutions for Environmental Aid (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1995), pp. 327-366.

February 18: International Environmental Regimes 2:  Effectiveness
        -Young, Governance in World Affairs, pp. 79-132.
        -Oran Young and Marc Levy, "The Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes," in Young, ed., The Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes: Causal Connections and Behavioral Mechanisms (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1999), pp. 1-32.
        -Harold Jacobson and Edith Brown Weiss, "Assessing the Record and Designing Strategies to Engage Countries," in Weiss and Jacobson, eds., Engaging Countries: Strengthening Compliance with International Environmental Accords (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998), pp. 511-554. 
    -Arild Underdal, “One Question, Two Answers,” and “Conclusions:  Patterns of Regime Effectiveness,” in Miles et al., eds.s Environmental Regime Effectiveness: Confronting Theory with Evidence (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2002), pp. 3-45; 433-465. 
    -John Hovi, Detlef F. Sprinz, and Arild Underdal, “The Oslo-Potsdam Solution to Measuring Regime Effectiveness: Critique, Response, and the Road Ahead,” Global Environmental Politics 3(3), (August 2003), pp. 74-96. 
    -Oran R. Young, “Determining Regime Effectiveness: A Commentary on the Oslo-Potsdam Solution,” Global Environmental Politics 3(3), (August 2003), pp. 97-104. 

February 25: Negotiations
        -DeSombre, The Global Environment and World Politics, pp. 7-30, 164-178.
        -Young, Governance in World Affairs, pp. 133-188.
        -Susan Sell, "North-South Environmental Bargaining: Ozone, Climate Change, and Biodiversity." Global Governance vol. 2 (1996), pp. 97-118. 
    -Detlef Sprinz and Tapani Vaahtoranta, “The Interest-Based Explanation of International Environmental Policy,” International Organization 48 (1994), pp. 77-105. 

March 3: The International Economy
        -DeSombre, Domestic Sources of International Environmental Policy , pp. 245-257.
        -Arthur P.J. Mol, “Ecological Modernization and the Global Economy,” Global Environmental Politics 2(2) (May 2002), pp. 92-115. 
        -Marc Williams, “Trade and Environment in the World Trading System:  A Decade of Stalemate?” Global Environmental Politics 1(4) (November 2001), pp. 1-9. 
    -Magda Shahin, “Trade and the Environment:  How Real is the Debate?” in Kevin Gallaher and Jacob Werksman, eds., The Earthscan Reader on International Trade and Sustainable Development  (London:  Earthscan, 2002), pp. 205-226. 
    -Daniel Nelson and Michael Tierney, “Delegation to International Organizations:  Agency Theory and World Bank Environmental Reform.”  International Organization vol. 57, #2 (Spring 2003), pp. 241-276. 

March 10 and 17:  No class meetings
*March 10 is spring break, and March 17 overlaps with the ISA annual meeting in Montreal.

March 24:  Climate Change
        -DeSombre, The Global Environment and World Politics, pp. 95-118.
        -Bjorn Lomborg, The Skeptical Environmentalist:  Measuring the Real State of the World (Cambridge:  Cambridge UP, 2001), pp. 258-326. 
        -Matthew Paterson, Global Warming and Global Politics (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 157-177. 
        -Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 10 December, 1997. 
        -Michael Grubb, et al ,The Kyoto Protocol: A Guide and Assessment (London: The Royal Institute for International Affairs, 1999), pp. 61-114. 

March 31: A World Environmental Organization?
    -Frank Biermann, “The Case for a World Environmental Organization,” Environment, 42, (9) (September 2000), pp. 22-31. 
    -Konrad von Moltke, “The Organization of the Impossible,” Global Environmental Politics 1(1) (February 2001), pp. 23-28. 
    -John Whalley and Ben Zissimos, “What Could a World Environmental Organization Do?” Global Environmental Politics 1(1) (February 2001), pp. 29-34. 
    -Peter Newell, “New Environmental Architectures and the Search for Effectiveness,” Global Environmental Politics 1(1) (February 2001), pp.35-44. 
    -Frank Biermann, “The Emerging Debate on the Need for a World Environmental Organization: A Commentary,” Global Environmental Politics 1(1) (February 2001), pp. 45-55. 

April 7:  Presentations

April 14:  Presentations

April 21:  Conclusions