Global Environment
PhD Comprehensive Exam Reading List
The following readings are in addition to those required by the core concentration courses.
1. Historical overview of global environmental politics as a field of study
Paterson, Matthew. (2006). Theoretical Perspectives on International Environmental Politics.
In M. Betsill, K. Hochstetler, & D. Stevis, (Eds.), Palgrave Advances in International
Environmental Politics (pp. 54-81). New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Mitchell, Ronald. (2002). International Environment. In T. Risse, B. Simmons, & W.
Carlsnaes, (Eds.), Handbook of International Relations (pp. 500-516). Sage.
Hardin, Garrett. (1968). The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, 162, 1243-1248.
Meadows, Donella H. et al. (1972). The Limits to Growth. New York: The Club of Rome.
Sprout, Harold & Sprout, Margaret. (1971). Toward a Politics of the Planet Earth. New York:
Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Falk, Richard. (1971). This Endangered Planet: Prospects and Proposals for
Survival. New York: Random House.
2. Cooperation theory, the state, the global system, and global governance
Biermann, Frank & Dingwerth, Klaus. (2004, Feb). Global Environmental Change and the
Nation State. Global Environmental Politics, 4:1, 1-22.
Litfin, Karen. (1997, November). Sovereignty in World Ecopolitics. Mershon International
Studies Revie,w 41:2, 167-204.
Meyer, John W. et al. (1997, Autumn). The Structuring of a World Environmental Regime,
1870-1990. International Organization, 51:4, 623-651.
Ostrom, Elinor. (1990). Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective
Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Young, Oran R. (1994). International Governance: Protecting the Environment in a Stateless
Society. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Najam, Adil et al. (2004, November). The Emergent ‘System’ of Global Environmental
Governance. Global Environmental Politics, 4:4, 23-35.
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Conca, Ken. (2006). Governing Water: Contentious Transnational Politics and Global
Institution Building. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Biermann, Frank & Pattberg, Philipp, eds. (2012). Global Environmental Governance
Reconsidered. Cambridge: MIT Press.
3. Regime theory and international law
Mitchell, Ronald B. (2003). International Environmental Agreements: A Survey of Their
Features, Formation, and Effects. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 28, 429–61.
Weiss, Edith Brown and Jacobson, Harold K., eds. (2000). Engaging Countries:
Strengthening Compliance with International Environmental Accords. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Koehane, Robert and Victor, David. (2011). The Regime Complex for Climate Change.
Perspectives on Politics, 9, 7-23.
Haas, Peter. (1989). Do Regimes Matter? Epistemic Communities and Mediterranean
Pollution Control. International Organization, 43, 377-403.
Young, Oran R. (2010). Institutional Dynamics: Emergent Patterns in International
Environmental Governance. Cambridge: MIT Press.
4. Nonstate actors, transnationalism, civil society
Wapner, Paul. (1996). Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics. Albany: SUNY
Press.
Hochstetler, Kathryn, (2002, November). After the Boomerang: Environmental Movements
and Politics in the La Plata River Basin. Global Environmental Politics, 2:4, 35-57.
Clark, Ann Marie, et al. (1998). The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison
of NGO Participation in UN World Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights and
Women. World Politics, 51, 1-35.
Keck, Margaret E. and Sikkink, Kathryn. (1998). Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy
Networks in International Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Ghandi, Ajay. (2003). Developing Compliance and Resistance: The State, Transnational
Social Movements and Tribal Peoples Contesting India’s Narmada Project. Global Networks,
3, 481-495.
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5. Global political economy
Conca, Ken. (2000, Autumn). The WTO and the Undermining of Global Environmental
Governance. Review of International Political Economy, 7:3, 484-494.
Esty, Daniel. (2001). Bridging the Trade-Environment Divide. Journal of Economic
Perspectives, 15, 113-130.
Clapp, Jennifer. (2001). Toxic Exports: The Transfer of Hazardous Waste from Rich to Poor
Countries. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Dauvergne, Peter. (1997). Shadows in the Forest: Japan and the Politics of Timber in
Southeast Asia. Cambridge: MIT Press.
6. Environment, sustainable development, and North-South dimensions
Peluso, Nancy Lee. (1992). Rich Forests, Poor People: Resource Control and Resistance in
Java. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Ferguson, J. (1990). The Anti-Politics Machine: Development, Depoliticization, and
Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Najam, Adil. (2005). Developing Countries and Global Environmental Governance: From
Contestation to Participation and Engagement. International Environmental Agreements, 5,
303-321.
Sen, Amartya. (1999). Development as Freedom. New York: Anchor Books.
7. Environment, conflict, and peacebuilding
Le Billon, Phillipe. (2001). The Political Ecology of War: Natural Resources and Armed
Conflict. Political Geography, 20, 561-584.
Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke. (2005). Resource Rents, Governance, and Conflict. Journal
of Conflict Resolution, 49, 625-633.
Homer-Dixon, Thomas. (1991). On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of
Acute Conflict. International Security, 16, 76-116.
Diehl, Paul F. & Gleditsch, Nils Petter, eds. (2000). Environmental Conflict. Boulder:
Westview Press.
Levy, Marc A., (1995, Fall). Is the Environment a Security Issue? International Security,
20:2, 35-62.
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Ross, Michael. (2004). What Do We Know about the Resource Curse. Journal of Peace
Research, 41, 337-356.
Dinar, Shlomi. (2011). Beyond Resource Wars: Scarcity, Environmental Degradation, and
International Cooperation. Cambridge: MIT Press.
8. Environmental ethics and eco-political theory
Wapner, Paul. (2010). Living through the End of Nature: The Future of American
Environmentalism. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Vandana Shiva. (2010). Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Development. Cambridge, MA:
South End Press.
Jacques, Peter. (2006). The Rearguard of Modernity: Environmental Skepticism as a Struggle
of Citizenship. Global Environmental Politics, 6, 76-101.
McKibben, Bill. (2010). Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. New York, NY:
Henry Holt and Company
9. Comparative environmental politics and policy
Steinberg, Paul F. & VanDeveer, Stacy D., eds. (2012). Comparative Environmental Politics:
Theory, Practice, and Prospects. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Schreurs, Miranda. (2002). Environmental Politics in Japan, Germany and the United States.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
DeSombre, Elizabeth R. (2000). Domestic Sources of International Environmental Policy:
Industry, Environmentalists, and US Power. Cambridge: MIT Press.
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