Florida State University

Department of Geography


Global Resource Governance, GEO 4930-04/5934-02

Fall 1998, Bellamy 362, Thursdays 3:35-6:05

Dr. Phil Steinberg



 
 


Office: Bellamy 320 Office Hours: Tuesdays 4-6; Wednesdays 1-3 
 Phone: (850) 644-8378  E-mail:  psteinbe@coss.fsu.edu

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." -- R.E.M.

"John Foster Dulles ain't nothing but the name of an airport now." -- Gil Scott-Heron

"Christ the Redeemer towering high over Rio
Rio de Janeiro; Rio
Where they held a summit to save the world...
Death sits on all our laps
While Christ the Redeemer
Towers high over Rio
Rio de Janeiro, Rio."
-- The Violent Femmes

Course Overview

As the world is increasingly impacted by processes of "globalization," environmental resources and problems are encountered at scales that transcend the territorial state. Among these resources are those that exist in spaces outside state territory (e.g., the resources of outer-space, the ocean and its floor, the deep underground, and Antarctica), resources that acquire value when managed at a global scale (e.g., the global gene pool and global communications and transportation networks), and resources that have no clear location in space (e.g., intellectual property and the resources of cyberspace). In response to these problems and opportunities, the world-community has empowered a host of intergovernmental agencies and regimes to govern global resources.

This class will examine what impact these global resource problems -- and the global regimes established to cope with them -- are having on the world political system of sovereign, territorially-defined states. Some scholars hold that intergovernmental cooperation is nothing new; others hold that it is new but represents one more adaptation of an inherently flexible state system; still others hold that it demonstrates a contradiction in world politics and foreshadows the demise of the state system.

In particular, this class will attempt to answer such questions as:

To investigate these questions, this class will consist of four units. Unit I will review traditional political science and international political economy scholarship on regimes and, in particular, the conditions under which states cooperate to regulate environmental issues. Unit II will develop a political-geographic perspective on state sovereignty, focussing on the disjuncture between the state as an institution that governs bounded territory and environmental issues that defy territorial limitations. Unit III will examine some of the new actors (besides the state) involved in global environmental governance, including non-governmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and corporations. Unit IV will engage a number of philosophical and ethical issues to consider not simply whether increased governance of the global environment is possible, but also whether it is desirable.

Class Format and Assignments

Readings for most classes will consist of two components. The bulk of the readings will be fairly theoretical, but for most classes there will also be a brief two-to-five page case study, taken from chapter three of the Porter/Brown book. For each class, each student is to submit a brief (2-5 pages) reaction paper, reflecting on that week's theoretical readings and on how the analyses of that week's authors might be brought to bear on the week's Porter/Brown case study. These reaction papers are due by 10AM each Thursday, so that I will have time to read through the reaction papers before class. Reaction papers will be graded on a check-minus, check, check-plus scale.

Additionally, each student is to write a seminar paper (approx. 15-20 pages) on a specific global environment/global resource governance issue. First drafts of these papers will be due in class on November 19, at which time there will be paper presentations (with one copy submitted to the instructor and one to the assigned student discussant). Written comments from assigned student discussants will be due on Monday, November 23 (one copy to the instructor and one to the paper writer). Final versions of the seminar paper will be due on Monday, December 7.

Grades will be calculated as follows:

Class Schedule

August 27
Introduction

I.  GLOBAL RESOURCE GOVERNANCE WITHIN THE STATE SYSTEM

September 3
Traditional regime theory
Krasner: Chapters 1.1 (Krasner), 2.1 (Puchala/Hopkins), 3.1 (Stein), 5.1 (Strange), and 5.2 (Krasner)

September 10
Traditional regime theory and the environment
Peter Haas, "Obtaining International Environmental Protection through Epistemic Consensus" in Millennium, Vol. 19 (1990), pp. 347-363.
Vogler/Imber: Chapters 1 (Vogler) and 4 (Paterson)
Young: Chapter 1
Porter/Brown: Chapter 1
Case Study: Acid rain – Porter/Brown, pp. 69-72

September 17
International political economy regime theory
Keohane: Chapter 8 (Cox)
Alfredo Robles, “Global Governance and Political Economy: German and French Perspectives” in Global Governance, Vol. 1 (1995), pp. 9-117
Murphy: Introduction
Becker et al.: Chapter 1 (Becker/Sklar)
Agnew/Corbridge: Chapter 7
Case Study: Ozone depletion – Porter/Brown, pp. 72-77
 

II.  THE LIMITS OF THE TERRITORIAL STATE

September 24
The territorial foundation of the state
Michael Mann, “The Autonomous Power of the State” in Archives Europeenes de Sociologie, Vol. 25 (1984), pp. 185-213
Friedrich Kratochwil, “Of Systems, Boundaries, and Territoriality” in World Politics, Vol. 39 (1986), pp. 27-52
Robert Sack, “Human Territoriality” in Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 73 (1983), pp. 55-74
Peter Taylor, “The State as Container” in Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 18 (1994), pp. 151-162
Agnew/Corbridge: Chapters 3 and 4

October 1
The eclipse of the sovereign, territorial state?
Rosenau/Czempiel: Chapter 3 (Zacher)
Lyons/Mastanduno: Entire pamphlet
Peter Taylor, “Beyond Containers” in Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 19 (1995), pp. 1-15
John Ruggie, “Territoriality and Beyond” in International Organization, Vol. 47 (1993), pp. 139-174
Shapiro/Alker: Chapter 2 (George)
Case Study: Ivory – Porter/Brown, pp. 81-84
 

III.  NEW ACTORS IN ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE: AGENTS OF GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY?

October 8
The discourse of sustainability
Sachs: Chapters 6 (Ekins), 7 (Achterhuis), and 9 (Worster)
O’Connor: Chapters 7 (M. O’Connor) and 8 (J. O’Connor)
Case Study: Whaling – Porter/Brown, pp. 77-81

October 15
Corporations, NGOs, and Intergovernmental agencies I
Karliner: Entire book (divide class for chapters 3-5)
Porter/Brown: Chapter 2
Case Study: Toxic waste – Porter/Brown, pp. 84-88

October 22
Corporations, NGOs, and Intergovernmental agencies II – Focus on UNCED
Tom Athanasiou, “After the Summit” in Socialist Review, Vol. 22 (1992), pp. 57-92
Sachs: Chapters 1 (Sachs), 2 (Hildyard), 3 (Finger), 4 (Banuri), and 5 (Meyer-Abich)
Porter/Brown: Chapter 4
 

IV.  ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: NEW COMMONS, NEW ETHIC, NEW CITIZENSHIP?

October 29
Ecopolitics beyond the sovereign nation-state I
Kuehls: Entire book
Case Study: Global warming – Porter/Brown, pp. 92-96

November 5
Ecopolitics beyond the sovereign nation-state II
Lipschutz/Mayer: Entire book (divide class for chapters 4-6)
Case Study: Desertification – Porter/Brown, pp. 101-105

November 12
Global commons governance as neo-colonialism: Local environmental governance as post-statist liberation
Shiva: Entire book
Sachs: Chapters 8 (Von Weizsacker), 10 (Shiva), 11 (Lohmann), 12 (Gudynas), 13 (Beney), 15 (Tandon), and 17 (Agarwal/Narain)
Case Study: Biodiversity – Porter/Brown, pp. 96-99

November 19
Presentations

December 3
Global commons governance as post-statist liberation: Examples from the ocean, Antarctica, and outer space
Andelson: Chapter by Hardie
Van Dyke/Zaelke/Hewison: Part I (Intro to Part I and Chapters 1-7)
Alfredo Robles, “The 1994 Agreement on Deep Seabed Mining” in World Bulletin, Vol. 12 (1996), pp. 20-70
Michael Laver, “Public, Private, and Common in Outer Space” in Political Studies, Vol. 34 (1986), pp. 359-373
M. Manzoni and P. Pagnini, “The Symbolic Territory of Antarctica” in Political Geography, Vol. 15 (1996), pp. 359-364
Mark Zacher and James McConnell, “Down to the Sea with Stakes” in Ocean Development and International Law, Vol. 21 (1990), pp. 71-103
Kent Keith, “Floating Cities” in Marine Policy, Vol. 1 (1977), pp. 190-204
Case Study: Antarctica – Porter/Brown, pp. 88-92

Texts

All readings except journal articles are from the following texts. Books from which we will be reading all or most of the chapters have been marked as “required purchases.” Books from which we will be reading several chapters have been marked as “recommended purchases.”

Agnew, John and Stuart Corbridge, Mastering Space: Hegemony, Territory, and International Political Economy, London: Routledge, 1995. [Recommended Purchase]

Andelson, Robert, Commons Without Tragedy, London: Shepheard & Walwyn, 1991.

Becker, David et al., Postimperialism: International Capitalism and Development in the Late Twentieth Century, Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1987.

Karliner, Joshua, The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age of Globalization, San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1997. [Required Purchase]

Keohane, Robert, Neorealism and its Critics, New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Krasner, Stephen, International Regimes, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983. [Recommended Purchase]

Kuehls, Thom, Beyond Sovereign Territory: The Space of Ecopolitics, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996. [Required Purchase]

Lipschutz, Ronnie, Global Civil Society and Global Environmental Governance: The Politics of Nature from Place to Planet, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996. [Required Purchase]

Lyons, Gene and Michael Mastanduno, Beyond Westphalia? International Intervention, State Sovereignty, and the Future of International Society, Hanover: Dartmouth College, 1992.

Murphy, Craig, International Organization and Industrial Change: Global Governance Since 1850, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

O’Connor, Martin, Is Capitalism Sustainable? Political Economy and the Politics of Ecology, New York: Guilford, 1994

Porter, Gareth and Janet Welsh Brown, Global Environmental Politics, 2nd Edition, Boulder: Westview, 1996. [Required Purchase]

Rosenau, James and Ernst-Otto Czempiel, Governance Without Government: Order and Change in World Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

Sachs, Wolfgang, Global Ecology: A New Arena of Political Conflict, London: Zed, 1993. [Required Purchase]

Shapiro, Michael and Hayward Alker, Challenging Boundaries: Global Flows, Territorial Identities, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Shiva, Vandana, Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge, Toronto: Between the Lines, 1997. [Required Purchase]

Van Dyke, Jon, Durwood Zaelke, and Grant Hewison, Freedom for the Seas in the 21st Century: Ocean Governance and Environmental Harmony, Washington: Island, 1993. [Recommended Purchase]

Vogler, John and Mark Imber, The Environment and International Relations, London: Routledge, 1996.

Young, Oran, International Governance: Protecting the Environment in a Stateless Society, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994.

ADA Statement

Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations should: a) Register with and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC); b) Bring a letter to the instructor from the SDRC indicating you need academic accommodations. This should be done within the first week of class.