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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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.
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ItemAmbushed: The Kyoto Protocol, the Bush administration's climate policy and the erosion of legitimacy(Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature), 2007-03-01)The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 164 states and is now fully operational. However, the Bush administration's repudiation of the Protocol combined with the weakness of the targets raise a confronting question for students of legitimacy: is it possible for a regime to be legitimate but ineffective in solving the problem it is designed to address? I argue that effectiveness is an important component of the Protocol's legitimacy but that the parties have been reluctant to make an issue of effectiveness during the early phase of the Protocol's operation. However, the legitimacy of the Protocol is likely to wane, and the chronic international legitimacy crisis of the Bush administration's climate change policy is likely to become acute, as a result of poor performance. I conclude by suggesting what might constitute significant and timely adaptation that might resolve the US's chronic legitimacy crisis and the Protocol's waning legitimacy.