Newsletter April 2002
The new editor is David Downie. Please send all announcements, information,queries, reviews, help wanted, etc. to dd113@columbia.edu PLEASE NOTE: This is a special issue dealing only with proposals for the ISA. A regular issue will be mailed at the start of the next academic year. Please send send all announcements, information, queries, reviews, help wanted, etc. to the new editor of the newsletter, David Downie, at dd113@columbia.edu.
ISA PROPOSAL DEADLINES
As you may know, ISA has set a June 1st deadline for all panel and paper proposals for the 2003 ISA conference. Since there is going to be limited space in Portland, we urge you to please meet the deadline for the proposals; proposals are not likely to be accepted if late. The forms for the proposals can be accessed at the following addresses:
Panel Proposal Web Form: http://66.206.16.10/PanelSubmit.htm Paper Proposal Web Form: http://66.206.16.10/PaperSubmit2.htm
The formal call for proposals can be read at: http://www.isanet.org/portland/call_for_papers.html
If you are planning on participating on the program next year, please make sure that you fill out the appropriate proposal form within the next fifteen days.
SECTION NEWS REGARDING POTENTIAL PANELS
As you recall, at the ESS section meeting in New Orleans, Don Munton noted all panel proposals should be sent to him at munton@unbc.edu. He noted that the ISA Program Chairs had cut the number of ESS panels back from some 30+ last year (including co-sponsored panels) to about 27 this year (including co-sponsored panels). Almost every panel and paper proposal submitted was incorporated somewhere. A number of people spoke regarding potential panels. The panels proposed for 2003 and the contacts included:
“Non-regimes and regime failure” (Rado Dimitrov; rado@polisci.umn.edu) “The Future of GEP Scholarship” (Peter Dauvergne; peterd@econ.usyd.edu.au) “The Resource Curse” (Erika Weinthal; erikaw@ccsg.tau.ac.il) “NGOs and Environmental Negotiations” (Michelle Betsill; m.betsill@colostate.edu) “Environmental Ramifications of the War on Terrorism” (Beth Chalecki; bchalecki@pacinst.org) “Central Asia” (Barbara Jancar-Webster; bjancar@brockport.edu) “Methodologies” (Kate O’Neill; koneill@nature.berkeley.edu) “Environmental Policy from Under the Mango Tree” (Hans Bruyninckx; Hans.Bruyninckx@hiva.kuleuven.ac.be) “Water” (Ken Conca; kconca@gvpt.umd.edu) “Environment and the UN” (Shin-Wha Lee; swlee@korea.ac.kr) “Environmental Science and International Relations” (Beth Chalecki; bchalecki@pacinst.org)
MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS REGARDING POTENTIAL PANELS
Several ESS members have confirmed their interest in organizing a panel and are reaching out to members for potential papers. These include:
3.1 Potential Panel Topic: “Explaining Non-Regimes: Failure in International Regime Formation” (Rado Dimitrov, Dept. of Political Science, University of Minnesota).
Students of international regimes typically study only cases where policy regimes were formed and mostly ignore issue domains that states choose not to address through agreements. Yet, the basis for generalizable claims about factors accounting for the creation and effectiveness of international regimes must include no-regime cases. To rectify the problem of general inattention to non-regimes, this panel will explore when and how international policy agreements do not come into being. Each paper will present a case or issue domain where states have implicitly or explicitly made a collective decision not to address an issue in a coordinated manner. Examples will come from the environmental, security, and IPE realms of world politics. Exploratory analyses will throw light on factors and actors that impede policy coordination processes and/or reasons why states do not deem coordination necessary. The panel will seek to further the development of systematic knowledge about the conditions for cooperation. Abstracts of papers for inclusion in a 2003 ISA Convention panel proposal are invited. Please contact Rado Dimitrov, University of Minnesota, at Rado@polisci.umn.edu (1414 Social Sciences, 267 19th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55108, tel. (651) 642-0949).
3.2. Potential Panel?Roundtable Topic: “Assessing Lomborg’s “Skeptical Environmentalist”” (Detlef Sprinz (dsprinz@rz.uni-potsdam.de)
Detlef writes, ESS” should host a panel on “Lomborg: The Skeptical Environmentalist” — both with the pros and cons, and perhaps Lomborg himself. I think of a 1-2 sequence [of 2 panels would be appropriate]. We should not miss the positive side for our field as the questions raised are right at the core. And we will have to attend to it in the classroom anyway. Ideally, we have a roundtable with short, 2-3 page written advance statements for distribution and Lomborg as the respondent. I would be happy to host such a/two panels if there is demand” Contact Detlef Sprinz at the Univ. of Potsdam: dsprinz@rz.uni-potsdam.de, http://www.sprinz.org Phone: +49 (331) 288-2555/-2532 (PIK), Fax: +49 (331) 288-2620 (PIK).
PUBLICIZING YOUR PANEL IDEA TO ESS MEMBERSHIP
If you want to find panalists for a particular topic, send an email to dd113@columbia.edu by next Tuesday and I will send out “Special ISA ESS Proposal Issue B” on Wednesday.Christoph Bail, Robert Falkner and Helen Marquard, eds.: The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety: Reconciling Trade in Biotechnology with Environment and Development? (London: Earthscan/RIIA, 2002). MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENTS REGARDING POTENTIAL PANELS
1. The Future of the International Whaling Commission: Call for Proposals
William C.G. Burns is interested in putting together a panel that discusses the future of one of the world’s oldest and most dynamic MEAs, the International Whaling Commission. He is particularly interested in proposals that discuss some of the emerging issues that the IWC must address to ensure its viability, including jurisdiction over the exploitation of small cetaceans and the impacts of environmental change. Please submit brief abstracts to: William C.G. Burns, Co-Chair American Society of International Law – Wildlife Interest Group 1702 Arlington Blvd. El Cerrito, CA 94530 USA Ph: 650.281.9126 Fax: 801.838.4710 asilwildlife@pacbell.net http://eelink.net/~asilwildlife
2..Environmental Ramifications of the War on Terrorism: Call for Papers and Discussant.
This panel would examine the environmental consequences of our war on terrorism. The potential chair, Elizabeth L. Chalecki, has 2 papers already, but needs 2 more and a discussant. As Elizabeth Chalecki, writes, papers for this panel could examine anything “from estimates of collateral environmental damage in Afghanistan to a change in ANWR status as a result of the Bush Administration’s emphasis on energy security via increased domestic production. This topic can go almost anywhere and I think it would be very well attended. I suggested to the International Security Studies Section that they might like to co-sponsor it with ESS. All slots are open on this panel. “Environmental Science and International Relations” This panel would examine recent scientific advancements in our understanding of environmental processes and how our changed understanding impacts the way we conduct foreign affairs. This could be bilateral, regional, or global. These papers should preferably not be just theoretical, but should be backed up with concrete examples so as to keep the snooze quotient to a minimum and draw in attendees from other disciplines. I have 2 papers already, but need 2 more and a discussant.” Please contact: Elizabeth (Beth) L. Chalecki Research Associate Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security 654 13th Street, Preservation Park Oakland, CA 94612 (510) 251-1600 fax: (510) 251-2203 e-mail: bchalecki@pacinst.org http://www.pacinst.org
3. The Social Construction of Climate Change: Call for Proposals
Potential panel Chair, Mary Pettenger writes, “Climate change and the earth’s atmosphere have become increasingly salient issues in international environmental politics. A set of intersubjective meanings revolving around human understanding of the atmosphere and climate change is slowly emerging. However, the forces that are shaping this process are diverse and extremely complex. It is unclear and problematic to explain how the numerous actors, that are dependent on the atmosphere and responsible for its future, understand and manage the resource. At the same time, the atmosphere in a dualistic process continues to shape our understandings of it. How have and will these perspectives shape the emerging intersubjective meanings and our responses to climate change? The panel is intended to identify and explore the numerous forces that have shaped the agent-structure process in which climate change meanings are forming. Potential papers could include a wide-range of perspectives on the social construction of climate change including (but not limited to) scientific, policymaking, theoretical (e.g., constructivist and positivist), economic, and social understandings.” Please submit paper proposals as soon as possible to: Mary Pettenger, University of Nebraska-Omaha mpettenger@mail.unomaha.edu (and/or to my home email at mpettenger@aol.com).
David Leonard Downie Director of Educational Partnerships Columbia Earth Institute Columbia University, 405 Low Library, MC 4335 535 West 116th Street, New York, NY 10027
212-854-5725; dd113@columbia.edu http://www.columbia.edu/cu/sipa/RESEARCH/dd113.html http://www.bio2.edu/ http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/mpabiosphere/
