TY - JOUR
AU - Zara, Aslihan Turan
AB - Robert Falkner's book brings a new perspective into English School (ES) theory and global environmental politics (GEP). It explores a profound transformation in international relations through the emergence of environmental stewardship as a fundamental international norm (p. 1), as a primary institution and also as a greening process of global international society (GIS). Falkner offers a comprehensive account, at both theoretical and historical levels, of the interaction of environmental stewardship with the existing normative structure of international society, based on the framework developed by him and Barry Buzan in an earlier work (European Journal of International Relations 25: 1, 2019). The primary aim of Falkner's new book is to ‘set the scene for a closer and mutually beneficial engagement between ES and global environmental politics scholarship’, and his main argument is that environmental stewardship has emerged as a fundamental norm of global international society (p. 7). Falkner supports this argument using the ES theoretical and conceptual framework and by exploring the rising engagement of ES scholars with global environmental politics. The normative dimension of the ES, and the distinction between pluralist and solidarist wings within it, enable Falkner to show comparative societal development and international change, yielding the emergence of a new fundamental norm of environmental stewardship (p. 20). For him, GEP constitutes the empirical test case for explaining not only the normative development in International Relations but also its sources and its direction. The normative orientation is important given his desire to explore the potential transformative changes in international order. He successfully combines the historical background of environmental politics and theoretical discussions within ES theory to explore how environmental ideas have reshaped the normative order of international society, and the ways in which environmentalism has interacted with existing primary institutions and international norms. ES theory helps Falkner to discover the societal dimension of environmental stewardship and long-term historical change in both international relations and GEP. He contextualizes a profound analysis of the interaction between international and world society, and uses environmental stewardship as an empirical test case to show how international norms transfer from the latter to the former, the emergence of environmental norms, the mutual normative shaping between them, and the interplay between state and non-state actors. The author addresses the long-term influence of environmental stewardship on international society, considering both the shift in the role and identity of states and the normative evolution of GIS. Against a historical background of global environmentalism, he focuses on the roles played by states, international organizations, non-governmental organizations and also civil society, at both national and international levels. The book shows that interplay between these actors in GEP established environmentalism as a responsibility for international society (p. 90). Falkner describes the development of GEP at national, regional and global levels, in order to observe the diffusion and globalization of environmental policies, and thus the interaction between international and world society. He concludes that international and world society are not exclusively distinct, and even though not fully integrated yet, they are interacting. World society, he contends, functions as a source of normative development for international society by creating new norms (usually through non-state actors as norm entrepreneurs) and by directing a process of merging international and world society that is envisaged as ending up in a comprehensive globalized world order (p. 41). To explore the normative structure of GIS, the ES provides Falkner with another distinction, namely that between primary and secondary institutions, which he uses to undertake a deeper analysis of international change and international legitimacy. Falkner places environmental stewardship within the primary institutions, considering the rise of modern environmentalism since the Second World War, and especially since the Stockholm Conference of 1972, which confirmed that global environmentalism was a new component of international society's normative order (p. 124). The book compares pluralist and solidarist perspectives on global environmentalism, reflecting both the constraints of the existing international normative order centred on sovereignty, territoriality, market, developmentalism and also the consolidation of global environmental cooperation. In this respect, environmental stewardship combines the pluralist, state-centric structure of international society with the solidarist logic of realizing humanity's shared interest (p. 126). Falkner homes in on the 1992 Rio Summit, where environmentalism was recognized as a universal norm, convincing sceptical developing countries with an emphasis on sustainable development. He suggests that environmentalism itself must be decolonized in order to become a universally accepted fundamental norm of GIS (p. 159). Even though secondary institutions provide environmental governance mechanisms and environmental multilateralism offers an increasing socialization of environmental stewardship, the reluctance of national governments is a weakening factor for the UN system of global environmental governance. In this respect, the role of the global South is also evaluated as a weakening factor of global environmentalism, whereas the global North is considered a promoter of environmental politics. Here the discussion on the ways in which the reluctance of both to implement GEP could be overcome needs a more detailed assessment. To remain within the framework of ES theory, the role of great powers could have been critically evaluated, identifying their key location at the juncture of international and world society as a block on the universalization of environmental stewardship. © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Institute of International Affairs. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/journals/pages/open_access/funder_policies/chorus/standard_publication_model)
TI - Environmentalism and global international society
JO - International Affairs
DO - 10.1093/ia/iiac010
DA - 2022-03-07
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/environmentalism-and-global-international-society-HJmCnrRmSe
SP - 786
EP - 788
VL - 98
IS - 2
DP - DeepDyve
ER -