Ecological security

This chapter appraises the concept of Ecological Security. The treatment of environmental questions as matters of security has grown over the last half century—both in theory and practice—but has also proved contentious. Firstly, environmental “securitization” is anathema to the traditional realist view that non-military issues do not warrant such treatment and, secondly, it is resisted by most ecologists through fears that this may prompt the inappropriate militarization of such concerns. The critical or human security rationale that the millions of deaths from pollution are, in themselves, enough to merit emergency treatment has subsequently suffered by being unwelcomed by a large proportion of both the conservatives and the radicals in international environmental politics

The trading and use of agrochemicals

The use of synthetic chemicals has revolutionized agriculture, bringing at the same time huge gains in the form of increased food yields and many significant problems arising from the toxic nature of many of the formulations. The global demand for greater quantities and a certain standard of food has continued to encourage agrochemical use at the same time as the health, safety and environmental sustainability of doing so has brought this ever more into question. Principles of agroecology have come to inform agrochemical use, but the prioritization of traditional over sustainable development in many countries and the perceived complexity of alternative strategies for improving crop yields have limited this shift mainly to the Global North. This review covers the rise of agrochemicals, assesses the costs and benefits of their production, use and trade and then describes and evaluates international political responses to the dilemmas that they pose to humanity

The natural environment

In this chapter readers will learn about the following: • The emergence of environmental politics and political ecology. • How and why environmental politics has globalized. • Why achieving global consensus for political action on environmental issues has proved difficult. • How, in spite of such difficulties, a consensus on global political action on the environment has emerged, persisted and survived US-led resistance

International political economy, Part II: key factors and controversies

From reading this chapter you will be able to understand, compare and evaluate the international political impact of the following key actors in International Political Economy; • The International Monetary Fund (IMF), • World Bank, • World Trade Organization, • United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OPEC, G8 and G20. • Multi-National Corporation

Intergovernemntal organisations

In this chapter you will come to: • Understand what an Intergovernmental Organization is and the variety of forms they take. • Appreciate how Intergovernmental Organizations have evolved in line with globalization and other changes in the international political system. • Be able to evaluate the political significance of Intergovernmental Organizations from rival theoretical perspectives

Human rights

This chapter will expand upon the quintessential debate of International Relations introduced in the opening box and consider: • The meaning and rise of the concept of human rights in international affairs. • The roles played by the United Nations and civil society in advancing human rights by promoting the implementation of existing legal instruments and developing further ones. • Why there is resistance to this development of human rights (from quarters other than human rights abusers themselves!

Development, poverty and inequality

From reading this chapter you will be able to; • Comprehend the disparity of wealth in the contemporary world and appreciate rival explanations for this phenomenon. • Evaluate competing arguments for the causes of hunger and famine in the world. • Be able to evaluate, from a variety of theoretical perspectives, the progress of international policies designed to facilitate the development of poorer states over the past sixty years

Democratization

In this chapter you will explore: • what a democratic political system is and the different forms they take. • how and why the idea of democracy has spread internationally through the process of democratization. • different views on why democracy sometimes fails to take hold in states and yet, in other cases, becomes (apparently) permanent. • the debate on whether democracy can be imposed by force in a process of ‘nation building’. • why some see democratization as crucial for justice, human rights and world peace but others dispute this

Workplace insecurity: the case for global goverance

The annual global death toll from accidents at work far outstrips that accrued in acts of war or terrorism, but the phenomenon struggles to command anything like the prominence of these traditional priorities of international security in global politics. Whilst the 'securitization' of many non-military issues, such as climate change and disease, has come to be accepted in some sections of the academic and 'real' political world, this status has very rarely been granted to workplace accidents. This seems to be because of the perception that a) accidental deaths cannot be equated to deaths inflicted directly by enemies (including non-human ones) and b) protecting workers is a domestic rather than international political concern. Protecting people against such accidents, though, is a legal and political task which has been accepted by industrialized governments from as far back as the late nineteenth century when 'social security' policies began to evolve in response to changing economic and social conditions. Equally, incidents of workers in Less Developed Countries being killed are no longer unfortunate problems unconnected with the relatively safe lives of people in the global North since developed world consumers are functionally connected to these systemic failures as never before. This paper therefore presents the case for the international community to adopt a human security approach which allows for worker safety to be given the international political priority it deserves