Introduction Both political and international relations theorists have struggled with how to overcome the paradox of the as it relates to the production and correction of global environmental problems. Although there is wide agreement among those who study global environmental politics that international cooperation is a necessary step in alleviating global environmental problems, the shape of this cooperation, the social and political forms that cooperation takes, and the role of the state in cooperation are all topics of contestation (See Conca and Dabelko 2010). Informing this debate are the material realities and norms that underpin globalization, neoliberal capitalism, and state sovereignty, which all serve to naturalize certain (neo)liberal forms of social and political interaction and obscure alternative forms of local-state-global relations. Indeed, overlapping tensions manifest between increasingly transnational connections and fragmentations of authority, including the traditional nation-state system. As Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko (2010) note, live in a world that is at once fragmented by the political “We division into sovereign states and reassembled by pervasive flows of people, goods, money, ideas, images, and technology across borders” (p. 2). In short, borders and identities are increasingly subjected to forces that both contest their rigidity and re-inscribe new forms of sovereignty and authority on both nation-states and groups that straddle these traditional borders (See Ong 2006). Despite the tensions between continued fragmentation and transnationalism, however, the nation-state remains powerful, and uniquely positioned in world politics. External and internal sovereignties, while contested, are far from obsolete. For example, while Robyn Eckersley (2005; 2007) argues that states still possess a great deal of power, and states
Introduction Both political and international relations theorists have struggled with how to overcome the paradox of the as it relates to the production and correction of global environmental problems. Although there is wide agreement among those who study global environmental politics that international cooperation is a necessary step in alleviating global environmental problems, the shape of this cooperation, the social and political forms that cooperation takes, and the role of the state in cooperation are all topics of contestation (See Conca and Dabelko 2010). Informing this debate are the material realities and norms that underpin globalization, neoliberal capitalism, and state sovereignty, which all serve to naturalize certain (neo)liberal forms of social and political interaction and obscure alternative forms of local-state-global relations. Indeed, overlapping tensions manifest between increasingly transnational connections and fragmentations of authority, including the traditional nation-state system. As Ken Conca and Geoffrey D. Dabelko (2010) note, “We live in a world that is at once fragmented by the political division into sovereign states and reassembled by pervasive flows of people, goods, money, ideas, images, and technology across borders” (p. 2). In short, borders and identities are increasingly subjected to forces that both contest their rigidity and re-inscribe new forms of sovereignty and authority on both nation-states and groups that straddle these traditional borders (See Ong 2006). Despite the tensions between continued fragmentation and transnationalism, however, the nation-state remains powerful, and uniquely positioned in world politics. External and internal sovereignties, while contested, are far from obsolete. For example, while Robyn Eckersley (2005; 2007) argues that states still possess a great deal of power, and states
WPSA%202015%20Final%20Paper-%20Chelsea%20DeCarlo-%20Colorado%20State%20University.docx