Dr Robert Falkner FAW 11.01B

This course is available on the MSc in Environmental Economics and Climate Change, MSc in Environmental Policy and Regulation, MSc in Global Politics, MSc in International Affairs (LSE and Peking University), MSc in International Political Economy, MSc in International Political Economy (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in International Political Economy (Research), MSc in International Relations, MSc in International Relations (Research), MSc in Political Science and Political Economy and MSc in Regulation. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

 

All students are required to obtain permission from the Teacher Responsible by completing the Student Statement box on the online application form linked to course selection on LSE for You. Admission is not guaranteed.

An introduction to concepts and issues in the study of global environmental politics, with special emphasis on the political economy of environmental protection. Environmentalism and the greening of international society; domestic sources of environmental diplomacy; environmental leadership in international negotiations; international environmental regimes and their effectiveness; the role of nonstate actors (business, NGOs); corporate environmentalism; private environmental governance; trade and environment; international environmental aid; greening foreign direct investment; climate change; biosafety regulation; deforestation.

This course is delivered through a combination of seminars and lectures totalling a minimum of 20 hours across Lent Term. This year, some or all of this teaching will be delivered through a combination of online lectures and in-person classes/classes delivered online. Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Topics:

1. Introduction: The rise of global environmentalism in international politics

2. States and foreign environmental policy

3. Nonstate actors (NGOs and business) in global environmental politics

4. International environmental regimes and regime effectiveness

5. International trade and global environmental protection

6. Global finance, aid and sustainable development

7. Multinational corporations and private environmental governance

8. Climate change: international negotiations and multi-level governance

9. Biosafety: scientific uncertainty and the politics of precaution

10. Deforestation: non-regimes and private governance

Students will be expected to produce 1 essay in the LT.

• Biermann, F., & Kim, R. E. (2020). Architectures of Earth System Governance: Institutional Complexity and Structural Transformation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Chasek, Pamela S., Downie, David L., & Brown, Janet Welsh. (2017). Global Environmental Politics (7th edition ed.). London: Routledge.
• Clapp, J. and P. Dauvergne (2011). Paths to a Green World: The Political Economy of the Global Environment. Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
• Corry, O., & Stevenson, H. (2017). Traditions and trends in global environmental politics: International relations and the earth. London: Routledge.
• Falkner, R. (2008). Business Power and Conflict in International Environmental Politics. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Falkner, R., Ed. (2016). The Handbook of Global Climate and Environment Policy. Cheltenham, John Wiley & Sons.
• Hoffmann, M. J. (2011). Climate Governance at the Crossroads: Experimenting with a Global Response after Kyoto. New York, Oxford University Press.
• Jinnah, Sikina, & Morin, Jean-Frédéric. (2020). Greening through trade: How American trade policy is linked to environmental protection abroad. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
• Jordan, A., Huitema, D., van Asselt, H., & Forster, J. (Eds.). (2018). Governing Climate Change: Polycentricity in Action? Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the summer exam period.

Department: International Relations

Total students 2019/20: 52

Average class size 2019/20: 13

Controlled access 2019/20: Yes

Value: Half Unit