Climate Change and Foreign Policy: Case Studies from East to West
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Chapter 10, "Exceptionalism as foreign policy: US climate change policy and an emerging norm of compliance" by Elizabeth L. Chalecki.
Chapter 10 Abstract: Climate change is not only an environmental problem but also a foreign policy problem, for the United States and indeed any country. Our best scientific knowledge about the effects of global warming predicts negative changes, from precipitation to agriculture to disease vectors. As such, it is axiomatic that nations would want to mitigate this phenomenon as early as possible. However, our current system of international law places no involuntary obligations, such as compliance with a climate mitigation treaty, on any state. In the past, if a state refused to become party to a treaty, this refusal was assumed to be without prejudice. Not anymore. Because the effects of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted anywhere are felt everywhere, efforts to mitigate climate change must be coordinated across all nations, lest any one nation have the incentive to free ride on the efforts of others. Unfortunately, that is exactly what the United States has done over the past decade with its repudiation of the Kyoto Protocol. A new norm of compliance with agreements is becoming customary with regard to the global environmental commons, particularly in the case of climate change, and this norm is being driven by improving climate science. This chapter will examine the development of this norm of compliance, why the United States has failed to comply with it, and what the consequences and implications of this norm for both international law and American foreign policy are. However, two key assumptions must be stated at the outset. First, the intellectual concepts behind the creation of customary norms of international law are valid regardless of the application of those norms. In other words, states are expected to comply with existing laws and norms, even if there is currently no real-world forum for their adjudication. Second, treaty and a party that is out of compliance with that same treaty.1 In both cases, the desired end-state is that all nations are parties and that they comply with the treaty’s terms.
Book Abstract: Climate Change and Foreign Policy: Case Studies from East to West and its companion volume, Environmental Change and Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice, examine and explain the role of foreign policy politics, processes and institutions in efforts to protect the environment and natural resources. They seek to highlight international efforts to address human-induced changes to the natural environment, analyze the actors and institutions that constrain and shape actions on environmental issues, show how environmental changes influence foreign policy processes, and critically assess environmental foreign policies.
This book examines the problem of global climate change and assesses the manner in which governments and other actors have attempted to deal with it. It presents a series of in-depth international case studies on climate policy in Australia, Japan, China, Turkey, Hungary, Denmark, France, the European Union and the United States. The authors demonstrate how studying environmental foreign policy can help us to better understand how governments, businesses and civil society actors address—or fail to address—the critical problem climate change.
This book will be of strong interest to scholars and students of environmental policy and politics, foreign policy, public policy, climate change and international relations.
ISBN
9780203881408
Publication Date
6-3-2009
Publisher
Routledge
City
London
Disciplines
Political Science
Recommended Citation
Chalecki, Elizabeth L. 2009. “Exceptionalism as Foreign Policy: U.S. Climate Change Policy and an Emerging Norm of Compliance” Chapter 10 in Climate Change and Foreign Policy: Case Studies from East to West. Harris, Paul G., ed. New York: Routledge, pp. 148-161.