GCC Climate Change and International Relations Theories Discussion

Overview

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1. We have discussed three key theories of international relations (realism, liberalism, constructivism) in this course. Which theory do you think best describes the types of responses world governments have pursued to date to address the climate crisis? Which theory do you think represents the optimal approach to addressing climate change? Please substantiate your answer.
2. Imagine you have been tasked with designing a new climate regime for the United Nations. What would your new design look like? What would you change about the current regime, and what would you keep the same? For this answer, you might consider some of the following ideas: climate regime complex, regime scope and objectives, types of issues covered, structure of the regime, binding vs. non-binding, monitoring and enforcement, and equity and distributional considerations.
3. Based on the nature of the climate crisis, do you believe that climate change is a global collective action problem for the world’s governments? Please explain why or why not. If so, what type of collective action problem is it? Finally, building on your answers to these questions, how well do you think the current climate regime addresses the free-rider problem (if you believe this to indeed be a problem)? To answer these questions, you might consider integrating information on the scientific basis of climate change, a discussion of the different types of collective action problems, what climate change has in common (or doesn’t) with these different problems, and the idea of the climate trilemma.