International environmental threats have commanded widespread attention since the late 1960s. A number of environmental disasters have galvanized public concern, and have reached the international political agenda following the emergence of environmental social movements in the industrialized countries. current concern with globalization. The international environmental politics literature anticipated many of the descriptive features of globalization and the themes commonly used to analyze the political and economic forces associated with globalization. courses and analysts in international environmental politics and globalization. The editor has selected those previously published articles which are seminal in the development of this new field and which have either generated widespread debate or represent a clear application of major approaches to the understanding of these new issues. He has also provided an authoritative introduction to complement his selection.

The experience of environmental governance is approached in Improving Global Environmental Governance from the unique perspective of actor configuration and embedded networks of actors, which are areas of emerging importance. The chapters look at existing Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and the broader constellation of partially networked institutions to better understand the involvement of individual actors and how to deepen the networks that include them to generate more effective governance. The book covers a wide range of issued pertaining to environmental governance including trans-boundary air pollution, marine pollution, biodiversity and ozone depletion. It also examines partnerships as a hybrid case of emerging modes of environmental governance. These partnerships are a recent form of actor configuration that warrant attention for dealing with global environmental threats in order to better understand the full potential of actor configurations in the absence of state involvement. In order to test applicability to on-going but stalled processes, the book applies the approach to one of the most difficult issues we face: climate change. By addressing key questions in this important area, the book provides new perspectives in the nexus between agency and architecture in environmental governance in the twenty-first century.

The experience of environmental governance is approached in Improving Global Environmental Governance from the unique perspective of actor configuration and embedded networks of actors, which are areas of emerging importance. The chapters look at existing Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and the broader constellation of partially networked institutions to better understand the involvement of individual actors and how to deepen the networks that include them to generate more effective governance. The book covers a wide range of issued pertaining to environmental governance including trans-boundary air pollution, marine pollution, biodiversity and ozone depletion. It also examines partnerships as a hybrid case of emerging modes of environmental governance. These partnerships are a recent form of actor configuration that warrant attention for dealing with global environmental threats in order to better understand the full potential of actor configurations in the absence of state involvement. In order to test applicability to on-going but stalled processes, the book applies the approach to one of the most difficult issues we face: climate change. By addressing key questions in this important area, the book provides new perspectives in the nexus between agency and architecture in environmental governance in the twenty-first century.

The increasing complexity of the world's problems has escalated both the need for international policy co-ordination and the difficulty of achieving it. With that in mind, the contributors to this volume assess what happens to the distribution of power when policymakers rely on the counsel of technical experts to make decisions of international importance. Because the way states identify and respond to problems depends not only on how policymakers understand the issues but also on how the issues are represented by their advisers, the contributors examine the growing role that epistemic communities play in several areas: facilitating governmental learning; articulating the cause-and-effect relationships of global problems; helping to discern state interests; framing the issues for collective debate; proposing specific policies; and identifying salient points for international negotiation.

Can environmental institutions be effective at bringing about a healthier environment? How? Institutions for the Earth takes a close look at the factors influencing organized responses to seven international environmental problems - oil pollution from tankers, acid rain in Europe, stratospheric ozone depletion, pollution of the North Sea and Baltic, mismanagement of fisheries, overpopulation, and misuses of farm chemicals to determine the roles that environmental institutions have played in attempting to solve them. Through rigorous, systematic comparison, it reveals common patterns that can lead to improvements in the collective management of these problems and suggests ways in which international institutions can further the case of environmental protection.The contributors identify three major functions performed by effective international environmental institutions: building national capacity, improving the contractual environment, and elevating governmental concern. The international organizations analyzed within this framework include the United Nations Environment Program, the Intergovernmental Maritime Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, numerous fisheries commissions, the Commission for Europe, theOslo and Paris Commissions, the Helsinki Commission, and the United Nations Fund for Population Assistance.Peter M. Haas is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Robert 0. Keohane is Stanfield Professor of International Peace at Harvard University. Marc A. Levy is Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and Associate at Harvard's Center for International Affairs.

International Environmental Governance reviews the contentious approaches to addressing global and transboundary environmental threats. The volume collects together the most influential and important literature on the major political approaches to dealing with these problems, their histories, major debates, and research frontiers. It is accompanied by a substantial introduction which reviews the evolution of the academic contribution to environmental governance, focusing on a wide array of international environmental problems.