Governing the global commons. Theories and empirical studies of international environmental - Single View

Regimes are the main institution in international politics, besides international organizations, by which public and private actors seek to overcome transboundary collective action problems. Focusing on international regimes in global environmental politics, this course will introduce students into key questions in the research on international regimes and will familiarize them with different theoretical and conceptual approaches to international regimes, with major analytical and methodological challenges in the study of international regimes, and with the empirics of important international environmental regimes in the contemporary world. To this end, students will discuss critically what the functions of regimes are in international politics, why and how regimes are created, why and how they change over time, and what effects they have, under what conditions, and why. The reading of theoretical, conceptual, and analytical literature on international regimes as well as of related empirical research will inform the discussions. At the end of the course, students will be able to compare and assess critically the different theoretical, conceptual, and analytical perspectives on international regimes, will have understood the major functions and dynamics of international regimes, and will have acquired basic empirical knowledge on important international regimes, their differences, forms, and effects.