Domestic Sources of International Environmental Policy: Industry, Environmentalists, and U.S. Power. By Elizabeth R. DeSombre. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000. 316p. $22.00 paper.

Abstract

In two provocative new books, Elizabeth DeSombre and Matthew Paterson attack two issues that call into question common assumptions about international environmental pol- itics (IEP). Paterson asks: Does our global environmental predicament reflect unfortunate, but essentially unrelated, secular trends or the influence of deeper, structural forces? DeSombre asks: Does resolution of environmental problems, whatever their sources, require broad support among many countries, or can solutions arise from unilateral action by a single powerful state? Paterson's answer involves a refreshing critique of the IEP literature that shows how traditional realist and liberal approaches systematically ignore the un- derlying causes of global environmental change. DeSombre provides a trenchant analysis of when, how, and why a country will attempt, and succeed at, internalization of its own domestic environmental regulations. Both books make significant contributions to the growing IEP literature, ex- tending it to important new areas of research.