The modern world is more unpredictable and complex
The modern world is more unpredictable and complex than ever before. Most people speculate that we are living in global disorder and an international system that is chaotic. There still lacks a world government, although a worldwide government system is in the embryonic stage and since the USA cannot rule the global environment as it did in the 1990s because of the emergence of new players in the international markets which it make it much more complex to identify current power relations. Globalization is encouraging the reemergence of nationalism since new emerging powers are seeking to gain political powers by national (re) affirmation. Western powers, especially in Europe, are trying to curb the rise of racist, xenophobic, and racist forces due to their inability to deal with the financial crisis effectively. The international community is faced with diverse problems that are having some relation to the environment, and unless there is cooperation, this chaos might become worse than ever seen before. Different tools can be useful in studying global environmental politics. The various sub-themes in the study are global governance, civil society; or, inter-state cooperation, which will be discussed detail and their effects on international relations.
In simple terms, global governance encourages some to enquire about how the world is organized and how authority and power are exercised, and the significance of adjustments, whether wholesale and incremental, can make the world better. The line dividing politics, society, and economy has become increasingly blurred as social factors begin to take up more political relevance. However, globalization processes have lessened the distinction between international and domestic politics. In this framework, civil societies that were once ennobled by national borders are now stretched beyond state boundaries. All organizations that are defined as transnational or global have been experiencing an increase in numbers as well as influence. Civil societies are becoming significant players in global governance. Lastly, the environmental issues cut across major issues such as economics and security and have thus become a worldwide concern with the UN Security Council commencing discussions on climate change in 2007 and have since become a recurring theme in G20 summits. Drug wars, water wars, oil wars, climate change, and deforestation have all become standard terms in international relations. The environment in particular natural resources has become increasingly linked with security, which is now a controversial issue in international politics (Pereira, 2015).
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Literature Review
The industrial revolution was driven by agriculture, urbanization, and technological development as population growth rose as a result of the increase in capita demand and the consumption of goods that need learned resources to manufacture. Climate change for the past 60 years worsened the situation as water usage across all continents as increased as twice as fast as the population. This, coupled with other factors such as an increase in GDP and demand for energy, has led to the scarcity of water in different regions around the world. Security and economic development are, therefore, under threat due to climatic changes (Joana). It the fact that humans are finding it hard to be in control of climate change despite the resources invested in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC). Emissions continue to rise, which reduces the probability of remaining 2 degrees over preindustrial temperatures (Andrew). Emission reductions need fresh and more aggressive forms of governance to be achieved through mechanisms and modes to direct society. Most analysts assume that innovative uprisings would come from an inclusive global climate regime. However, before the failure of the 2009 Copenhagen conference, some scholars had already changed their perceptive on the plan of a single monocentric administration that would put into consideration different interlocking ”regime complexes” focussing on energy, climate, and trade
Environmental threats are mostly inrenationaland indirect manufacturers in and outside states. Protection of the environment involves a fresh perception of the relationship between societies, markets, and States. These perceptions with nature and extent of uncertainties,long term sales, and the unfair distribution of costs and impacts make it to asses and solve environmental issues. These issues are integral with human security as they are sensitive issues of environmental and social injustices which have links with unequalpowr relations() and possible route to emancipation which is cooncted with developing nations and already developedcountries although developing nations are the nitialones to experience bigger environmental problems(). Man made security hazards pass through nation borders. Protection of the envinronment and poverty are the most challenging hurdles of the century, so if there is failure in solving any these probems, there is probability the other factor will be undermined. Challenges in the environment have the potential to affect most countries in Africa as well as other regions in Asia and Latin America where poverty is a reemerging social problem which is sometimes synonymous with increased instability and insecurity causing an increase in failed states since most developing countries are dependent on natural resources. Halts in food production, scarcity in natural resources and spread of disease may weaken political powers of governments which in turn lead to civil and international conflicts. These conflicts may fuel spread of autocratic movements and radical ideologies. Developing countries will thus be under great risk of tring to survive different challenges including disasters, immigrants which threaten borders in US and Europe. This pressures economies and raises querrries on citizenship, sovereignty and citizenship.
The environment is likely the most multidimensional topic in the international relationships and international relations .In the 21st century the world is faced with diverse geopolitical challenges and the need for cooperation across all borders emerging as a critical factor. For instance, on water issues, there is need to associate global governance and water management to improve the governance of different factors leading to pressures on water like population growth and climatic change.
Civil society.
In the Aristotelian idea, politike koinonia, there was no involvement of separation of state and society or community and society. During enlightment civil society became a kingdom different from the state (). Civil society is a medium where people with similar self-interests interact as they attempt to satisfy their desires and provide a realm where peoples interests are structured and provided an institutional form(). Since the beginning of the 18th century, the definition of civil society has had a complicated history. However, there can be identification of three concepts that are: Marxist, liberal and Kantian. Classical liberalism describes civil society as a private entity of freedom that is free from the state provided by the economy, markets and property. It is evident that civil societies cannot replace traditional bodies of political representation ().over the years these societies have represented opinions struggling to reach political agendas.
Lispschuz described that in International relations, civil society is becoming a functional response to the reduced willingness and ability of government system to provide essential welfare services to the people(Lipschutz : 1992 : 399).This concept has been utilized by pioneering studies to provide a description of how governance has been overthrown by governments, with globalization contributing in a positive way in the disaggregation of authority in states in the formation of fresh and more flexible methods of social control().This shift was analyzed as being a transition period to governance from governments without governments in which nations have less grip on coercion and they have to share authority with other sectors such as NGO’S, international organizations and social movements. There is a combination of both decentralization and privatization ideologies that results to regulation that is multilevel held together by private and public networks. Governments are becoming less capable to meet governance demands ().Currently Gramsian theoretical insights provide a better perceptive on the uncertain role civil societies play in globalization.
Global governance
During the early 2000 scholars initiated the study of fresh ideas from neoliberal globalization to transnational resistance which also included efforts to resist global governance. There is argument that contemporary globalization makes conditions less difficult for movements to test neoliberal governance. Different scholars argue that these hurdles amount to simply “small perturbations” when adjusting to capitalism. Under this broad debate are opportunities and challenges faced by different networks of the alienated and their allies as they make efforts to change neoliberal global governance.()Around fifteen million individuals globally are dependent on the informal sector. Most of these people in the informal sector fight for their rights through cooperatives who are contracted sometimes by municipalities. Numerous studies have made a case for for all workers highlighting struggles they face in different nations as counter movements against neoliberal policies. This also includes policies that are related to monopolization and privatization of different businesses (David). Environmental problems ar now shared globally but worldwide governance institutions mostly have few effects caused by political compromises innate to negotiations which generally translates that suggested solutions tend not to be effective ecologically. Institutions that have been successful have done so because of the unexpected pattern of conditions and events especially among key political groups. While more inclusive an equitable representation would provide legitimacy it would be more desirable to create policies that are more effective. Transnational neopluralism contributes to this debate by explanatory. Analytical focus has to change to understand authentic world political operations especially those that are transnational in nature. Transnational processes are not only processes that cross borders but also involve multimodal and multiscar interactions that create patterns that are quasi regularized, filtering input and turning them to negative and positive outputs.
Methods
The paper’s objective was to conduct a review of the tools that International relations provide to study global environment politics. There were three subthemes that were discussed including global governance, civil society and climatic change. There were three methods that were used to collect required data: first, a search was conducted to find similar or related studies, followed by relevance appraisal then evaluation. Lastly, there was the extraction of data that was relevant to the study. The chosen appropriate sampling technique chosen for the study was systematic sampling as data required for the study was based on IRtools that facilitate the study of global environment politics. The advantage of using this sampling technique is that it is easy to implement and understand. This is particularly useful in studies that are characterized by budget constraints. Inclusion criteria were all articles describing International relations and its different tools and published their results online on the impact of these tools in studying global environment politics. Five specific articles on the different tools of international relations were analyzed. 5 articles were specifically chosen to summarize the tools that IR provide to study global environmental politics. Most of the cases at 3 were studies from North America while 2 of the case studies were from Asia Pacific region and Europe.
When searching for original and relevant literature, there was specifications and identification of keywords. A survey was initiated to study relevant literature published since 2012 on international relations and appropriate tools to study global environment politics. The keywords used in the search for data was “International relations” and “environmental politics”. Papers that were relevant and related were filtered after the initial results. Once keywords were known, three online databases were used to find the first batch of studies. The databases include Google Scholar, ProQuest, and Springer. The search phrases were utilized to find useful papers in diverse data bases.
Results
Throughout the paper it has been established that globalization was characterized by ambiguous ways and those environmental factors are essential effects accompanying globalization. Environmental topics touch on different issues and how these issues can cause global insecurity as well as providing opportunities for global cooperation. This establishes the notion that globalization and geopolitics are compatible and complement each other and are essential in understanding current complexities being experienced in the world. The environment is an essential tool in international relations and shapes social interactions especially in politics. The world is increasingly becoming multipolar and thus there is emergence of other powers thus eliminating the possibility of hegemonic powers. There is balance of power that is interepedence.However, the multipolar world will function solely if political powers commit towards establishing governance institutions. Economic activity is identified as an essential attribute of civil society which enables one to identify the neoliberal vision of the role of non state factors in global governance. Marxism ideologies identify civil societies as sites where social inequalities are reproduced and are able to shed light on different issues including the the purpose of non state elements within Neoliberalism.The neoliberal conception on the role of non state actors imply that incorporation of these actors can be a potential challenge to democracy in both substantive and formal dimensions . In the formal side it poses great problems to the accountability and legitimacy of the players involved while on the substantive side, state participants are involved in the implementation and elaboration of policies that are more likely to erode the governments capacity to provide essential services and lessen the gap between poor and rich countries. The key to describing global environment politics and policy making in politics and the development of effective policies is not in neo institutional structures or strengthening of global governance. It is however found in describing the never ending power struggles which includes exercising influence on interest groups and the potential of value groups whether they are opposing and supporting environmental policies to lead key debates
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