POL 373: Global Ecological Politics (rev. 2007-03-19) Prof. Alex Montgomery [email protected] (503) 517-7395 Class Office Tu 6:10-9:00 PM TuTh 4:00-5:30 PM or by appointment LIB 203 Eliot 204B https://moodle.reed.edu/course/view.php?id=32 http://www.reed.edu/∼ahm Course Description and Goals Full course for one semester. What conceptual framework can we use to analyze ecological issues in today’s world? Do we as human beings have responsibility toward the environment? What impact does globalization have on the environment? How do political and economic development of societies influence and how are they influenced by the changes in the environment? How do ecological issues affect conflict and cooperation between and within states? In an attempt to shed light on these questions, the course analyzes structures, agents, and processes affecting global ecological politics in the first half. The second half focuses on examining contemporary issue areas including food, fish, forests, biodiversity; water, pollution, chemicals, and waste; energy, climate change, and ozone depletion; and potential future problems. Prerequisite: one upper division course in social sciences or history or consent of the instructor. Conference. Students will learn to perform basic research and analysis through writing and thinking about events in world politics from multiple different perspectives. Readings are drawn from historic and contemporary scholars of international relations, cover a wide variety of issues, and are grouped together in conflicting pairs where possible. Assignments are a mixture of analysis, research, and experiential learning. Requirements Class Participation Students will have the opportunity participate in the class both during and outside of classroom hours. Each student will be assigned to two days during the semester in which they will co-author a short memo comparing and contrasting that day’s readings and posing questions for discussion. These memos should be posted in the forums on the course website by 8 PM the day before the readings are to be discussed. The posters will also start off the next day’s session with a short presentation and will open up discussion. ALL students are required to read the memos and be prepared to answer the questions the next day in class; they are also encouraged to respond to the memos in the forum as part of their participation. In addition, each student will find an outside article, book chapter, or report relevant to that week’s readings and individually write a short memo (about 500 words or so, longer is fine) discussing how that additional reading relates theoretically or empirically to the other materials. Please post the additional piece on Moodle (if electronic) or put it in my box (if not) by noon the day before class. Since the readings are usually divided up among the presenting students, a very good strategy is to pick a piece that is cited by, or cites, the reading that you are doing for the group memo so that you can bring that outside reading into the discussion. For example, it could be a piece discussing data that contradicts or updates some data presented in that week; a piece that discusses more in-depth particular aspects of a problem; or a piece that introduces a new perspective’s take (e.g., ecofeminism, deep ecology) on an issue or subject. If you are having trouble finding a piece, please contact me and I’ll be happy to assist. Your assigned weeks and your fellow presenters will be posted on Moodle. Readings Readings for the course are drawn from books available at the bookstore as well as E-Readings, which can be downloaded off the course website. For the lazy, the E-Readings can even be downloaded directly from the links on the syllabus. Readings marked “Further” are other relevant articles and book chapters; neither are required for class. 1 Six books are for sale at the bookstore and are also on reserve at the library; one book (Taking Sides) is only on reserve, and the last book (International Politics) is neither. The first five are required and will be used extensively throughout the course; the sixth (Environmental Peacemaking) is used for one class and therefore is recommended rather than required; the last two are optional since one (Taking Sides) is only for further reading and all of the relevant readings in the other (Art and Jervis) are available via E-Readings. Required • Pamela S. Chasek, David Leonard Downie, and Janet Welsh Brown (2005) Global environmental politics. 4th edition. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, Dilemmas in world politics, ISBN 0813343321;9780813343327 • Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko, editors (2004) Green Planet Blues: Environmental Politics from Stockholm to Johannesburg. 3rd edition. Westview Press, ISBN 0813342007 • Ronnie D. Lipschutz (2004) Global Environmental Politics: Power, Perspectives, and Practice. Washington, D.C: CQ Press, ISBN 1568027494 • Bjørn Lomborg (2001) The skeptical environmentalist : measuring the real state of the world. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521010683 • Dennis Pirages and Theresa Manley DeGeest (2004) Ecological Security: An Evolutionary Perspective on Globalization. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, ISBN 0847695018 Recommended • Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko (2002) Environmental Peacemaking. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 080187193X Optional • Thomas A Easton, editor (2007) Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Environmental Issues. 12th edition. McGraw-Hill, ISBN 007351442X • Robert J. Art and Robert Jervis (2005) International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues. 7th edition. New York: Pearson/Longman, ISBN 0321209478 Course Website Frequent reading of the course website will be helpful for success in the class. Discussion and collaboration with your peers is available to you through the website as well as in class; supplemental and core readings will be made available there; and assignments will be turned in electronically using the site. Assignments and Quals There is one formal assignment for this course. More details regarding the assignment will be available later. If you intend to qual in this course, you must let me know the first day. • The assignment (due the end of week 14) will be a longish (3000-3500 word) essay; non-seniors will present their assignments during the last class. Citation and Plagiarism A major goal of this course is to encourage good reading, research, and citation habits. Good research requires good documentation of sources and the ability to put one’s own analysis and thoughts into a paper rather than relying on others. Plagiarism and cheating are violations of academic integrity and thus violations of Reed’s Honor Principle. As specified by Reed’s academic conduct policy, such violations will result in disciplinary actions, including suspension or permanent dismissal from the College. For the purposes of this class, plagiarism is submitting a piece of work which in part or in whole is not entirely the student’s own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source. For more information see: <http://web.reed.edu/academic/gbook/comm pol/acad honesty.html>. Accommodations 2 If you’d like to request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Assistant Dean of Student Services, Adrienne Wolf-Lockett, Eliot 109, (503)777-7534. If you have a letter from Student Services, please let me know so we can discuss those accommodations. Schedule Week 1 01/23/07 Global Politics Part I: Structures, Agents, and Processes Week 2 01/30/07 Overview Week 3 02/06/07 Paradigms Week 4 02/13/07 Agents Week 5 02/20/07 Regimes Week 6 02/27/07 Globalization Week 7 03/06/07 Development Week 8 Spring Break No Class Part II: Issue Areas Week 9 03/20/07 Population Week 10 03/27/07 Food, Fish, Forests + Biodiversity Week 11 04/03/07 Water, Pollution, Chemicals, + Waste Week 12 04/10/07 Energy, Climate Change, + Ozone Week 13 04/17/07 The Future Week 14 04/24/07 Conclusions 3 01.Global Politics (26 Pages) • J. David Singer (1960) International Conflict: Three Levels of Analysis. World Politics: A Quarterly Journal of International Relations. 12(3), 453–461 <EReadings/Singer1960International.pdf>, ISSN 00438871 • Kenneth N. Waltz (1979) Chap. 1 in Theory of International Politics. 1st edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill <EReadings/Waltz1979Theory001-017.pdf>, 1–17, ISBN 0201083493;0075548526 Review • John J. Mearsheimer (2005) Anarchy and the Struggle for Power. In Art and Jervis, 50–60 <EReadings/ArtJervis2005International050-060.pdf> • Robert Gilpin (2005) The Nature of Political Economy. In Art and Jervis, 281–297 <EReadings/ArtJervis2005International281-297.pdf> • Jeffrey Frankel (2005) The Globalization of the International Economy. In Art and Jervis, 325–340 <EReadings/ArtJervis2005International325-340.pdf> • Julian L. Simon (2005) The Infinite Supply of Natural Resources. In Art and Jervis, 531–538 <EReadings/ArtJervis2005International531-538.pdf> • Thomas Homer-Dixon (2005) Cornucopians and Neo-Malthusians. In Art and Jervis, 539–541 <EReadings/ArtJervis2005International539-541.pdf> • Thomas C. Schelling (2005) What Makes Greenhouse Sense? In Art and Jervis, 542–550 <EReadings/ArtJervis2005International542-550.pdf> • Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink (2005) Transnational Activists Networks. In Art and Jervis, 551–557 <EReadings/ArtJervis2005International551-557.pdf> • Alexander Wendt (1995) Constructing International Politics. International Security. 20(1), 71–81 <EReadings/Wendt1995Constructing.pdf> 02.Overview (175 Pages) • Pamela S. Chasek, David Leonard Downie, and Janet Welsh Brown (2005) The Emergence of Global Environmental Politics. In Chasek, Downie and Brown Global environmental politics, 1–40 • Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko (2004) Introduction: Three Decades of Global Environmental Politics. In Conca and Dabelko Green Planet Blues, 1–14 • Ronnie D. Lipschutz (2004) Preface. In Lipschutz Global Environmental Politics, ix–xii • Ronnie D. Lipschutz (2004) What Are ”Global Environmental Politics?”. In Lipschutz Global Environmental Politics, 1–32 • Bjørn Lomborg (2001) Preface, Language and Measures.