Lena Partzsch

‘Power with’ and ‘power to’ in environmental politics and the transition to sustainability

ABSTRACT Scholars of environmental politics demand serious reform of international governance and institutions to protect planet Earth. There is therefore an urgent need to discuss what causes change and gridlock in environmental politics. Serious reform is inextricably tied up with questions of power. The diversity with which studies on environmental politics understand power is exposed through three ideal type concepts: power with (learning and cooperation), power to (resistance and empowerment) and power over (coercion and manipulation). So far, scholars have mainly used analysis of coercive power (over) to explain gridlock in environmental politics; also needed is explicit acknowledgement of coaction and individual agency that can enable transition to more sustainable societies.

Philanthropy: power with in international relations

In international relations, a long list of private donors has joined governments in addressing global problems and their financial contributions are mind-boggling. We argue that the transformational potential of philanthropists such as Bill and Melinda Gates and Michael Otto relies largely on mechanisms of power with others, i.e. cooperation and learning. There are situations in which power is neither attributed solely to A nor to B, but to both. Comparing the cases of Gates and Otto, however, we simultaneously emphasize that power with is not exercised independently from power over dimensions. If we simply assume philanthropists to be do-gooders, we may become inattentive to often hidden or invisible conflicts of interests and values.

The power of celebrities in global politics

The political commitment of celebrities is growing in scope and significance, especially when considering their increasing involvement in global politics. Bono is a prominent example of such a celebrity, who arguably has played a role in tripling the US budget for Africa. Even celebrities beyond the Anglo-Saxon context, such as the German singer and actress Heike Makatsch, have become globally esteemed celebrity activists. Scholars, however, face limits when it comes to assessing these individuals’ particular power in global politics. This article aims to develop a more complex understanding of how celebrities exercise power in global politics by first looking at theories of power and then considering how power plays out in two case studies of Bono and Makatsch as celebrity activists in global politics.

Powerful Individuals in a Globalized World

Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, made media headlines at the end of last year when he announced his intention to donate most of his Facebook shares to charity. This article deals with the significance and potential of individuals, such as Zuckerberg, in a globalized world, to determine global policy agendas. Philanthropists who head global foundations are the most apparent. While philanthropists’ involvement in international relations is based on their capital, celebrities increasingly use their fame to do political advocacy, and social entrepreneurs are sometimes able to initiate change based on new ideas. Contributing to the existing literature, the article compares the characteristics of these three categories and discusses their relevance against the background of the increasing delegation of authority to private actors in global governance. When dealing with non-state actors in global governance, scholars have simply assumed these actors to be collective entities. In consequence, we have missed the fact that power has not only shifted away from state actors but also increasingly concentrates on very few individuals who possess respective resources of power. The individualization of global policy processes therefore causes new problems of democratic accountability and legitimacy.

EU Water Initiative – A (non-) Innovative Form of Development Cooperation

Facing the reality of a global economy and an increasingly interdependent world, conventional forms of pure state-to-state development cooperation are being brought into question. At the Johannesburg summit in 2002, the European Union announced the EU Water Initiative (EUWI) with ‘partners’ from the private sector and from civil society organisations. This multi-stakeholder partnership is a key strategy in tackling the global water crisis. The article argues that, on the one hand, the EUWI follows an innovative approach in terms of coordinating state actors and ‘new’ actors from private sector and civil society, as well as from different policy fields. On the other hand, the partnership must be considered non innovative because it is de facto dominated by European actors, while actors in the partner countries are under-represented.

Food Versus Fuel: Governance Potential for Water Rivalry

Biofuel and food crop production compete for scarce arable land and water. The Mexican “tortilla crisis” in 2007 publicly revealed this dilemma. Such intersections can create challenges for developing policies – both at the global and national levels – that secure affordable and accessible food sources. Further, as water resources continue to be stretched, tradeoffs for consumptive uses will become increasingly common. Virtual water accounting is a tool that has been developed to increase our understanding of the way water is used in the production of goods, and particularly how this affects the global distribution of water through trade in these goods. The chapter presents the current understanding of global water resources and the impacts of trade on their distribution. Many linkages exist between energy security, agricultural trade, and water resource sustainability. As our understanding of the complexity of energy development and food ethics increases we will need to utilize tools such as virtual water accounting to inform policy making and to incorporate a wider array of social and environmental goals.

Ressourcenkriege und Blutkonsum: Über den Zusammenhang von Umweltzerstörung und Gewaltkonflikten

Fuhrt die globale Verknappung naturlicher Ressourcen zu Gewaltkonflikten? Aus Sicht insbesondere des Realismus besteht kein Zweifel uber diese Kausalitat (Gleditsch und Theisen 2010; Homer-Dixon 1994). Die Friedensforschung thematisierte Umweltzerstorung zunachst noch als Folge von Krieg, z. B. den grosflachigen Einsatz von Entlaubungsmitteln im Vietnamkrieg (Westing 1997) und das Anzunden von Olfeldern im Irakkrieg (Albrecht 1986). Inzwischen werden die Vernichtung, Degradation und Anderung der Okosysteme durch den Menschen als unabhangige Variable und Gewaltkonflikte als abhangige Variable untersucht (UNEP 2009).

Von Zukunftsgründern und Heldengeschichten

Social Entrepreneurship und insbesondere die Zusammenarbeit von Social Entrepreneurs bieten langfristig ein groses Nachhaltigkeits-Potenzial. Kurzfristig muss aber vor vermeintlichen Heldengeschichten und uberzogenen Erwartungen gewarnt werden