Understanding Global Environmental Politics develops a new, critical approach to global environmental politics. It argues that the major power structures of world politics are deeply problematic in ecological terms, and that they cannot be easily used to resolve major environmental challenges such as global warming. Instead of simply advocating the construction of new international institutions to respond to such challenges, therefore, the book argues that the construction of alternative social and political structures in necessary.

Global warming is established as the major environmental issue in the international political agenda. It is commonly understood to be the most difficult problem to solve politically. Whilst there are many arguments about what should be done about global warming, there have been few attempts to explain the politics surrounding it. This text looks at the major theories within the discipline of international relations, and considers how these might be able to provide accounts of the emergence of global warming as a political issue. After discussing the dominant neo-realist and neo-liberal...

Global warming is established as the major environmental issue in the international political agenda. It is commonly understood to be the most difficult problem to solve politically. Whilst there are many arguments about what should be done about global warming, there have been few attempts to explain the politics surrounding it. This text looks at the major theories within the discipline of international relations, and considers how these might be able to provide accounts of the emergence of global warming as a political issue. After discussing the dominant neo-realist and neo-liberal...

Direct action has become a key part of the strategy of the radical environmental movement since the early 1990s, used to address issues such as road building and car culture, genetically modified foods, consumerism and global finance institutions. It has helped shape the political climate and has transformed the way people view political action, undermining the assumption that the power of politicians and big businesses cannot be contested. At the same time it is highly controversial, often illegal, and, partly due to its move towards greater militancy, may be included in new Prevention of...

Direct action has become a key part of the strategy of the radical environmental movement since the early 1990s, used to address issues such as road building and car culture, genetically modified foods, consumerism and global finance institutions. It has helped shape the political climate and has transformed the way people view political action, undermining the assumption that the power of politicians and big businesses cannot be contested. At the same time it is highly controversial, often illegal, and, partly due to its move towards greater militancy, may be included in new Prevention of...

The car, and the range of social and political institutions which sustain its dominance, play an important role in many of the environmental problems faced by contemporary society. But in order to understand the possibilities for moving towards sustainability and 'greening cars', it is first necessary to understand the political forces that have made cars so dominant. This book identifies these forces as a combination of political economy and cultural politics. From the early twentieth century, the car became central to the organization of capitalism and deeply embedded in individual...

The car, and the range of social and political institutions which sustain its dominance, play an important role in many of the environmental problems faced by contemporary society. But in order to understand the possibilities for moving towards sustainability and 'greening cars', it is first necessary to understand the political forces that have made cars so dominant. This book identifies these forces as a combination of political economy and cultural politics. From the early twentieth century, the car became central to the organization of capitalism and deeply embedded in individual...

Understanding Global Environmental Politics develops a new, critical approach to global environmental politics. It argues that the major power structures of world politics are deeply problematic in ecological terms, and that they cannot be easily used to resolve major environmental challenges such as global warming. Instead of simply advocating the construction of new international institutions to respond to such challenges, therefore, the book argues that the construction of alternative social and political structures in necessary.

This book aims to advance an ecologically grounded approach to International Political Economy (IPE). While there are many volumes that deal with various environmental aspects of IPE, there are none that really try to get to grips with the question of how thinking ecologically transforms our understanding of what IPE is and should be. Katz-Rosene and Paterson seek to address this lacuna.

The volume shows the ways in which socio-ecological processes are integral to the themes treated by students and scholars of IPE - trade, finance, production, interstate competition, globalisation,...

This book develops new perspectives on the cultural politics of climate change and its implications for responding to this challenge.