International Environmental Politics and Policy
UMass Amherst
Political Science
Fall 2020
Prof. Peter Haas
Undergraduate seminar
Pollutants no longer respect national boundaries. Environmental problems are thus becoming international and even global in scope. Yet they continue to be addressed by national governments. As a class we will explore the management, or governance, of transboundary and global environmental threat. Why do these problems exist and persist, what can the international community do to address them, and how well such efforts are faring at improving international environmental quality? We will focus on the social, political and economic factors influencing their causes and potential for management, and analyze and evaluate different patterns of international response to transboundary pollution and threats to the quality of international commons.