IDL 102:
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS
Instructor: Ronald Mitchell

Overview. This course develops five basic perspectives from which to understand why environmental problems arise and how we can solve them. It then explores three processes of international policy development: identifying problems, designing and negotiating solutions, and implementing policies to change national behavior. We will use case studies to develop our understandings of these processes. We will seek answers to questions such as: What conditions produce agreements between countries to resolve problems? What types of rules prove most successful at inducing compliance? What sorts of trade-offs must be made between broad membership and stringent standards? How do we evaluate whether a treaty has been effective or successful? How do nations improve treaty effectiveness over time? In short, we want to identify the sorts of agreements that will help the nations of the world solve their environmental problems.

These questions require careful attention to causal analysis, i.e., to showing that one or more factors caused the outcome we observe and that absent that factor, the observed outcome would not have occurred. Thus, a major element of this course will require that you identify and skeptically evaluate all causal claims (your own, mine, and those of authors you read) regarding environmental problems. For example, this will require being initially dubious of claims that the International Whaling Commission has been in any way responsible for the decrease in the number of whales caught since the mid-1980s, that growing scientific knowledge was the real cause for signature of the ozone protection treaty, or that treaties ever have any influence on behavior.

To successfully pass the course all students are expected to 1) view the lectures (on the CDs); 2) know the reading materials; 3) participate at the seminars; 4) complete the weekly assignments; and 5) pass the midterm and final exams. 

Lectures and reading materials. Viewing the lectures and reading the assigned papers is the most essential part of the course. All enrolled students are therefore expected to view all lectures and read all assigned papers. 

Seminars. The seminars are organized and conducted by the Russian course instructors. The student performance at the seminars will be assessed based on three criteria: attendance, preparedness, and activity.

Assignments. For each week, except the midterm and the final, there will be a group assignment to write a short paper addressing a specific question. To that end, all students must be divided into groups of 3 by their instructors. The assignments will be graded and commented by the Stanford teaching assistants (TA) with one grade for the entire student group and a paragraph of comments.  To submit the assignments and view the results the students must login to the Forum and use the PanFora program. See the rules for submitting the assignments and our writing guidelines.

Exams. There will be a midterm exam after the first half of the course. The final exam will be given after the entire course is completed. Both the midterm and the final exams consist of two parts: in-class (short questions) and take-home (longer essay). Stanford teaching assistants will be grading and commenting on the exams. See the rules for submitting the midterm and the final exams.

Plagiarism and Cheating. Plagiarism is the use of somebody's work as one's own, without quotation marks and references to the original source. Cheating is the use of materials that are not allowed at the exam. No plagiarism or cheating are allowed under any circumstances whatsoever. Click here to read the rules for citation and reference.

Grading. The course grade will be determined by four factors: weekly assignments (30%), seminar participation (20%), mid-term exam (20%), and final exam (30%). All weekly assignments, midterms, and finals will be graded with numbers ranging from 60 to 100. The numbers will be converted into the final grade according to the following rule:

I. Introduction

Week 1: Febuary 13-17

Lecture #1: Course Introduction.

·         Mitchell, Ronald B. forthcoming. “Structures, Agents, and Processes in International Environmental Politics.” In Handbook of International Relations, eds. Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse, and Beth Simmons.

·         Т. Миллер, “Жизнь в окружающей среде.” В поисках выхода из экологического кризиса, Хрестоматия по курсу охраны окружающей среды. Москва, Издательство МНЭПУ, 1998.

·         Глобальная Экологическая Перспектива – 2000, ЮНЕП.

·         Map of Russia’s Key Environmental Problem Areas.

II. Perspectives on environmental problems

Week 2: Febuary 20-24

Lecture #2: Evaluating Policy Impacts

·         Mitchell, Ronald B., and Thomas Bernauer. 1998. “Empirical research on international environmental policy: designing qualitative case studies.” Journal of Environment and Development 7:1 (March), 4-31.

·         “Международное сотрудничество Госкомэкологии России с международными организациями,” Государственный доклад “О состоянии окружающей природной среды Российской Федерации в 1999 году, No. 8-10.

Lecture #3: A Scientific Perspective

(Guest Lecture by Steve Schneider, Biology Department, Stanford University)

·         Sheila Jasanoff , “Skinning Scientific Cats” in Ken Conca, Michael Alberty, and Geoffrey Dabelko, Green Planet Blues: Environmental Politics from Stockholm to Rio, 2nd Edition (Boulder: Westview Press, 1995), ch. 15.

• Ю.В. Яковец, “Об устойчивом развитии и экологических циклах,” журнал «Экология и жизнь» (4, 1999).

Week 3: Febuary 27-March 3

Lecture #4: Ecophilosophical and  Political Perspectives

·         Wapner, Paul. 1997. “Environmental Ethics and Global Governance: Engaging the International Liberal Tradition.” Global Governance 3:2 (May), 213-231.

·         Reitan, Eric. 1996. “Deep Ecology and the Irrelevance of Morality.” Environmental Ethics 18:4 (Winter), 411-436.

·         Моисеев Н.Н. Новый глобальный кризис.

Lecture #5: Economic and Legal Perspectives.

·         Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons," in GPB ch. 03.

·         Susan J. Buck, “No Tragedy of the Commons,” in GPB ch. 04

·         David Feeny, et al., “The Tragedy of the Commons: Twenty-two Years Later” in GPB ch. 05.

 III. Processes of International Environmental Management

a. Identifying Environmental Problems

Week 4: March 6-10

Lecture #6: Nonstate Actors (Nongovernmental Organizations and Multinational Corporations)

·         Wapner, “Governance in Global Civil Society”, in Young (ch. 3)

·         Общественные организации как катализатор конвенций по окружающей среде: опыт конвенций по озону, проблеме изменения климата и другим проблемам.  Центр СИРПАТИП, Казань.

·         Глученкова, “Гражданское общество и политический процесс (на примере экологического движения).” Перспективы самоуправления и самоорганизации в России / Отв. ред. И.А. Бутенко. М.: МОНФ, 2000.

 Lecture #7: How to Conduct a Good Causal Evaluation of a Treaty’s Influence.

·         Re-read Mitchell and Bernauer from the Lecture #2 reading material.

b. Negotiating International Agreements

Week 5: March 13-17

Lecture #8: Problem Identification Theory.