Routledge Epistemic Communities, Constructivism, and International Environmental Politics

Epistemic Communities, Constructivism and International Environmental Politics brings together 25 years of publications by Peter M. Haas. The book examines how the world has changed significantly over the last 100 years, discusses the need for new, constructivist scholarship to understand the dynamics of world politics, and highlights the role played by transnational networks of professional experts in global governance. Combining an intellectual history of epistemic communities with theoretical arguments and empirical studies of global environmental conferences, as well as international organizations and comparative studies of international environmental regimes, this book presents a broad picture of social learning on the global scale. In addition to detailing the changes in the international system since the Industrial Revolution, Haas discusses the technical nature of global environmental threats. Providing a critical reading of discourses about environmental security, this book explores governance efforts to deal with global climate change, international pollution control, stratospheric ozone, and European acid rain. With a new general introduction and the addition of introductory pieces for each section, this collection offers a retrospective overview of the author’s work and is essential reading for students and scholars of environmental politics, international relations and global politics. Review Bringing together some of his most important writings during the last quarter of century, one of the leading scholars of epistemic communities and environmental politics offers a modestly hopeful picture of gradual social learning under conditions of structural change. Scholars interested in some of the best thinking about a vitally important issue in world politics will rely on this collection for many years to come. Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University, USA This volume brings together many of Peter Haas's papers along with a new and lucid introduction tracing the epistemic communities research program that he has pioneered over the last quarter-century. Robert O. Keohane, Professor of International Affairs, Princeton University, USA Peter Haas has pioneered the study of advocacy groups with claims to consensual knowledge ("epistemic communities") in shaping international cooperation and institution-building. Moreover, he has been among the first to examine international environmental cooperation from a rigorous theoretical perspective. This timely collection of his essays showcases the intellectual development of one of the giants in the field. Thomas Risse, Professor of International Politics, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany About the Author Peter M. Haas is a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He received his Ph.D in 1986 from MIT, and has been at UMASS since 1987. He has had visiting positions at Yale University, Brown, Oxford, and the Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin. He has published on international relations theory, constructivism, international environmental politics, global governance, and the interplay of science and international institutions at the international level. He was awarded the 2014 Distinguished Scholar Award from the Environmental Studies Section of the International Studies Association.