Food Security and Biofuels Regulations: the Emulsifying Effect of International Regime Complexes

International institutions are proliferating over a wide range of issue areas, creating what have recently been described as regime complexes. More than complicated arrangements, regime complexes are structures: they are more than the sum of their parts, i.e. individual international regimes. While the concept of international regimes holds strong promise in this direction, academic research on regime complexes has mostly focused on how agents shape regime complexes but less on how complexes influence agents. This contribution aims at filling this gap by studying the effects that regime complexes might have on global governance, focusing more narrowly on the effects of regime complexes on non-state actors’ (NSAs) strategies with regard to agenda setting for new international regulations. More precisely, we hypothesise that regime complexes create an ‘emulsifying effect’ for pro-active NSAs to push for new regulations whereby the collective effect of non-state actors within and across regime complexes become greater than the sum of their individual effects within individual regimes. We use the examples of food security and biofuels regulations at the international level as a case study with a special focus on the European Union

Corrigendum to "Complex Systems and International Governance"

This collection of essays brings together scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds, based on three continents, with different theoretical and methodological interests but all active on the topic of complex systems as applied to international relations. They investigate how complex systems have been and can be applied in practice and what differences it makes for the study of international affairs. Two important threads link all the contributions: (i) To which extent is this approach promising to understand global governance dynamics? (ii) How can this be implemented in practice

Insights from global environmental governance

This collection of essays brings together scholars from various disciplines, based on three continents, with different theoretical and methodological interests, but all active in the subfield of global environmental governance (GEG). Each of them reviews the emerging literature around one specific conceptual innovation of GEG, related to one of the two core themes of GEG: International regimes or non-state actors. Beyond a review of the literature, each contribution hypothesizes on the reasons why GEG played a pioneer role in this concept and discusses its transferability to other subfields of IR

The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance

INTRODUCTION Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. RATIONALE We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs). RESULTS Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants. CONCLUSION Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century

Global Environmental Politics: Regulation for or against the Private Sector? The case of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

The study of the influence of business actors in global environmental governance has been mainly dominated by Neo-Gramscian scholars using a structuralist approach to account for private sector’s influence in the environmental realm. On the contrary, this paper aims at giving a pluralist contribution to the same field while developing the example of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, an international regime regulating the transboundary movements of genetically modified organisms. The theoretical framework is based on a multi-level governance analysis underlying three elements that have been neglected by former studies. These three elements are (i) the unity of the private sector, (ii) the network capacities of industrial actors, and (iii) the specificity of environmental negotiations. From a methodological point of view the study relies on some fieldwork conducted at the last CBDbiosafety meeting as well as archived material on the negotiations. The paper progressively looks at the different business groupings involved in the negotiation process; analyses the lobby strategies of the private sector, particularly their links with national governments; and questions to which extent these actions fit into global environmental policy-making. Using a pluralist approach allows to raise new questions which are the ability of firms to act as a unified political actor; the nature of their links with national governments, usually described thanks to a ‘competition state’ scenario; and the complex dynamics of international environmental negotiations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Les biocarburants, une alternative viable pour les transitions écologique et énergétique?

Pour limiter le réchauffement et le dérèglement climatique mondial, les experts du Groupe intergouvernemental sur le climat ont indiqué que nous devrons renoncer aux énergies fossiles d’ici 2100, alors que ces dernières occupent encore aujourd’hui pas moins de 80% de nos approvisionnements énergétiques. Il faut donc trouver et développer rapidement d’autres sources d’énergie, dont les énergies renouvelables. À ce titre, les biocarburants ont, depuis les années 2000 et jusqu’à récemment, été traditionnellement considérés comme une alternative verte aux énergies fossiles

The Legitimacy of Private Sector’s Involvement in Global Environmental Regimes: The Case of the Convention on Biological Diversity

This paper analyses a research topic poorly considered by authors interested in the legitimacy of environmental governance, that is to say the dynamics created by its interpretation by private sector actors. In order to fill this gap, a recent decision of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) –decision VIII/17 adopted in Marsh 2006- to further involve the private sector in the activities of the Convention is considered. The legitimacy of decision VIII/17 is twofold. Its first dimension requires the consideration of the impact it has on private sector activities related to the CBD. A multi-dimensional definition of legitimacy – input and output- is used to cover the whole range of possible interactions. The second one is linked to the legitimisation processes it might create inside the business community. This second dimension is crucial as there is a risk to see the decision reinterpreted and bypassed by private actors. The case study demonstrates the complexity of the mechanisms at stake in the involvement of the private sector as well as the diversity of topics that link business to environmental issues. More than outright incompatibility or a situation of domination by one actor over another, there is a whole complex of interactions that contribute to broader biodiversity governance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Business participation to global biodiversity governance: challenging theory with empirical data

This article aims at questioning the way business representatives organise when confronted to the development of international environmental regulations. The negotiations of the Convention on biodiversity (CBD) are investigated as a case study. After examining the existing literature on business involvement in international biodiversity governance, the article elaborates on a database of business participation to CBD negotiations. The main aim, while using such a database, is to clarify theoretical hypotheses on business participation to environmental regimes as well as to propose new directions for further research on business actors in environmental governance. The first results from this quantitative assessment are discussed and complemented with qualitative data from the literature as well as a series of interviews and participatory observations. The article sheds some light on current trends in the participation of industries to international biodiversity policy-making. In particular, business actors are much more diversified than theoretical frameworks supposed them to be. The handful of individuals that initially represented business in biodiversity governance is nowadays being slowly replaced by a broader range of economic actors advocating new solutions for sustainable development. These actors act through national delegations as well as direct participation to the negotiations through individual firms or business coalitions. In order to take the diversity of business actors into account, the research calls for the development of more precise empirical assessments of business actors in environmental governance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe