International Environmental Policy

To judge by this book, Elizabeth DeSombre is not an ideologue. The author is now a mid-career scholar in a New England college (Wellesley), teaching "political science" and "environmental studies." Her tone is calm and measured. She refers readers to published studies from a range of competing perspectives.

The book, itself, seems designed to provide a survey of developments in global environmental policy suitable for a university course. Students assigned this book are not likely to see it as axe-grinding. For anyone who has looked into these issues, the book may be of most interest as a guide to conventional wisdom in this field - as up-to-date on respectable opinion as one would expect a second edition to be.

The book starts with an overview of the history and legal framework for international agreements on environmental matters. Ensuing chapters look at the role of "science and uncertainty" in environmental negotiations, at the distinctive claims of "developing countries" and the role of "non-governmental actors," both non-profit advocacy groups and profit-oriented business. Then there are four chapters reviewing experience in particular fields, starting with "ozone depletion and climate change," followed by separate overviews of "whale conservation," of land-based "biodiversity" efforts (in "the Amazon and elsewhere"), concluding with "Regional Trans-boundary Air Pollution Agreements" (comparing European and North American experiences).

What does it all show? Five pages of throat-clearing prose in the "Introduction" offer few definite claims. The comparably brief "Conclusion" chapter does not add much. The case study chapters "suggest," according to the Conclusion, that it is "difficult to gain international cooperation to protect the environment" but the case studies "also demonstrate the willingness of states to work together" and of "non-state actors to undertake cooperative actions with states ... to address problems that affect the global environment."

These are not exactly daring claims. Since no one would bother to dispute them, one must wonder why it is worthwhile to offer a whole book to confirm such claims. Presenting background facts may be worthwhile, of course, even if they don't add up to a particular conclusion. But the book does not simply rely on this journalistic premise. It actually does offer a more contentious thesis - which is very much worth thinking about, even though the author does not subject it to any serious analysis.

This more interesting thesis is stated quite forthrightly in the last paragraph of the Introduction:

"Environmental politics poses challenges to a lot of traditional thinking about international relations.