Climate Change and Order: Mapping the Scope of International Relations in Studying Climate Politics
| Published date | 01 October 2020 |
| Author | Isha Sharma |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020881720965044 |
| Date | 01 October 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Research Article |
Research Article
Climate Change and
Order: Mapping the
Scope of International
Relations in Studying
Climate Politics
Isha Sharma1
Abstract
As globalization gained currency in international politics, multilateral negotiations
increasingly expanded their scope to include environmental issues. Still, the
political dimension of environmental change remains underrepresented in
international relations (IR) theorization. This article aims to focus on the
theoretical fortification in the mainstream IR when it comes to transboundary
environmental threats. Since the threats of climate change and environmental
degradation cannot be contained within the sovereign territories of states, the
state-centric conception of the political order in the conventional approaches
to IR fails to respond to the threats that are planetary in nature. The article
seeks to answer two questions: (a) What are the inadequacies in the realist and
liberal concepts of political order vis-à-vis climate change? (b) How to destabilize
the conventional assumptions of political order with the aim of making it more
receptive to the concerns associated with climate change? To do the latter,
the article delves into the work of Robert Cox in order to delineate his
intersubjective approach, which combines the material basis of political order
with social relations of production. By doing so, this approach also sheds light
on the transnational variants of hegemonic power, making it a useful explanatory
framework for political implications of climate change.
Keywords
Order, Robert Cox, problem-solving, critical theory, climate change
1 Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament, School of International Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
Corresponding author:
Isha Sharma, Doctoral Candidate, Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament,
School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India.
E-mail: sharma.isha@live.in
International Studies
57(4) 361–374, 2020
2020 Jawaharlal Nehru University
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DOI: 10.1177/0020881720965044
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