School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemEnvironmentalism and Patriotism: An Unholy Alliance?(Ashgate, 2008)
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ItemKyoto and the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate(Federation Press, 2007)
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ItemGreen Theory(Oxford University Press, 2007)
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ItemJust Carbon Trading?(Melbourne University Press, 2009)
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ItemCommunitarianism(Cambridge University Press, 2006)
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ItemGreening the Nation-state: From Exclusive to Inclusive Sovereignty(MIT Press, 2005)
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ItemThe Politics of Carbon Leakage and the Fairness of Border Measures(Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2010-01-01)The article critically examines domestic political concerns about the competitive disadvantages and possible carbon leakage arising from the introduction of domestic emission trading legislation and the fairness of applying carbon equalization measures at the border as a response to these concerns. I argue that the border adjustment measures proposed in the emissions trading bills that have been presented to Congress amount to an evasion of the U.S.'s leadership responsibilities under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). I also show how the “level commercial playing field” justification for border measures that has dominated U.S. domestic debates is narrow and lopsided because it focuses only on the competitive disadvantages and direct carbon leakage that may flow from climate regulation while ignoring general shifts in the production and consumption of emissions in the global economy, which have enabled the outsourcing of emission to developing countries. The UNFCC production-based method of emissions accounting enables Northern consumers to enjoy the benefit of cheaper imports from Southern producers and to attribute the emissions associated with this consumption to the South. I argue that it is possible to design fair border measures that address carbon leakage, are consistent with the leadership responsibilities of developed countries, do not penalize developing countries, and ensure that consumers take some responsibility for the emissions outsourced to developing countries.
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ItemTranslating science and restoring our sense of wonder - The end of nature as a landmark(SAGE Publications, 2005-06-01)Bill McKibben’s The End of Nature still stands as an exemplary case of environmental journalism in the way it translates complex scientific ideas into an accessible form and engenders a deep sense of wonder about the natural world. Nonetheless, this article suggests that McKibben’s core claim that we have reached the end of nature (as a human experience of the wild; as an independent, creative force and identity-fixing force; and as a reasonably predictable and reassuring force) is overstated and contradicted by his prescriptions for the future. If nature has come to an end and we humans have taken over nature’s role as the all-powerful force, as McKibben argues, then how can we follow his advice and choose to become nature’s creatures again? And whose idea of nature should count? McKibben appears to have mistaken decline for death and unintended human impacts for God-like control.
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ItemFrom cosmopolitan nationalism to cosmopolitan democracy(Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2007-10-01)This article offers both a critique and reconstruction of cosmopolitan democracy. It argues that cosmopolitan democracy promotes an excessively individualist account of political life and a functionalist approach to political community that are likely to undermine the kinds of national communities and citizens that are most likely to mobilise against global injustices. It argues that the alleviation of global injustices depends on the rescuing and reframing, rather than weakening, of national identities so that they take on a more cosmopolitan character. Cosmopolitan democracy is dependent upon cosmopolitan nationalism, based on a commitment to common liberty and justice at home and abroad.
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ItemA green public sphere in the WTO?: The Amicus curiae interventions in the transatlantic biotech dispute(SAGE Publications, 2007-09-01)The WTO's decision-making model of executive multilateralism has been widely criticized for its lack of accountability to civil society. However, through the mechanism of the amicus curiae brief, nongovernment organizations and other civil society actors have found a way of directly `inserting' the public interest concerns of civil society into the dispute resolution arm of the WTO, which has proved to be more amenable to `critical public reason' than the trade negotiation arm. This article critically explores both the text and context of the amicus briefs submitted in the transatlantic biotech dispute and highlights their role in generating a green cosmopolitan public sphere that seeks more reflexive modernization and facilitates horizontal forms of regime accountability. Cosmopolitan public spheres are conceptualized as specialized, intermediary structures, with multiple strategic and communicative functions, that mediate between supra-national governance structures and regional and domestic civil societies.