African Politics and International Relations
Posted in Course Notes, Environmental Politics, International Law on Apr 25th, 2012
My students in both classes have been focusing on climate change governance this week. One of the key themes that emerges is the question of equity. Does fairness matter here? (A question I won’t directly address because it is a take-home exam question!). What are the politics of equity and how does that translate into [...]
Posted in Course Notes, Environmental Politics on Apr 25th, 2012
A couple of my students have engaged in a discussion on our course blog regarding the precautionary principle. One student noted some of the potential advantages to principle: In the U.S. (considering the increase in political chatter about domestic oil drilling) perhaps some of the uncertainties about byproducts from drilling fluids, fracking fluids, and accident/spill [...]
Posted in Africa Notes, African Politics, Course Notes, Environmental Politics on Apr 24th, 2012
China’s Three Gorges Dam may be a huge mistake, reports Business Insider. Criticisms of the project are by no means new, but the most recent statements that 100,000 people may still need to be moved in response to landslide risks around the dam have brought its downsides back into focus. Meanwhile, China continues to be [...]
Posted in Course Notes, Environmental Politics on Apr 22nd, 2012
I found this via a Facebook post from my friend, Anna Schmidt. This is from Darryl Cunningham’s blog and book. Follow the link for the full story: http://darryl-cunningham.blogspot.com/search?q=Climate+change
Posted in Africa Notes, African Politics, Economic Development, Environmental Politics, Notes, Subjects on Apr 20th, 2012
BBC News – ‘Huge’ water resource exists under Africa. Unfortunately, Ghana’s water resources (where I worked on water issues as a Peace Corps Volunteer) don’t look particularly impressive here. Still, good news for the continent.
Posted in African Politics, Environmental Politics, International Law on Apr 18th, 2012
Earth Day is this Sunday and in both of my classes we are discussing the politics and international law of climate change this week and next. So I thought it might be a good opportunity to examine the recent news. Fragmented Global Governance and Climate Change A quick look at Reuter’s Diary on the Global [...]
Posted in Course Notes, Environmental Politics on Mar 25th, 2012
Drilling Africa’s Arctic | Thought Leader. The Virunga National Park, Africa’s oldest Unesco World Heritage Site, is situated along the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda. It contains more species of mammals, reptiles and birds than any other protected area on the continent. It has an exceptional diversity of landscapes [...]
Posted in Course Notes, Environmental Politics on Mar 16th, 2012
African elephants have been a major subject recently. News reports state that… At least half the elephant population in Cameroon’s Bouba N’Djida reserve have been slaughtered because the west African nation sent too few security forces to tackle poachers. (Reuters) Over at Africa Unchained, Julie Owono notes that there is a major capacity problem for [...]
Posted in Course Notes, Environmental Politics on Mar 7th, 2012
Bad News First: Kiribati’s President is trying to save his people by buying land in Fiji: “Rising Sea Levels Are Forcing this Entire Island Nation to Move to Another Island.” Now the Good News: Columbia’s Earth Institute Blog is reporting that Ethiopia has developed a new online climate service that can provide much needed data [...]
Posted in Environmental Politics on Feb 20th, 2012
Scott Barrett’s Environment and Statecraft heavily relies on game theory to make its arguments about environmental treaty-making. But what are the strengths and weaknesses of this approach? Well, first it is important to note that Barrett has a lot of company with his approach. A nice article written in the Atlantic Monthly back in 1993, [...]
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