Pamela L. Martin

Global Governance from the Amazon: Leaving Oil Underground in Yasuní National Park, Ecuador

This article explores the saga of the campaign to save the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) block of the Yasuní National Park in Ecuadors Western Amazon, a story of the complex transnational networks and global governance mechanisms that have emerged to create post-Kyoto solutions for the planet. Ecuadors Yasuní-ITT Initiative to keep nearly 900 million barrels of oil underground in exchange for global contributions for avoided emissions presents an alternative norm for global environmental governance in line with the indigenous concept of buen vivir, or the good life. This means living in harmony with nature, and is embodied in the Ecuadorian Constitution of 2008. These changes, however, are not without pressures and inconsistencies at the domestic and international levels. Ultimately, the Yasuní-ITT Initiative and subsequent UNDP Yasuní Trust Fund offer replicable models for other fossil fuel dependent and megadiverse countries in the developing world.

Transnational Normative Struggles and Globalization: The Case of Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia and Ecuador

Since the 1990s, the indigenous rights movement has catapulted from resource-poor, local activists to global activists. The rise of transnational indigenous rights movements has paralleled and interfaced with significant structural developments at the international and state-systemic level, raising questions about the interplay between global and local politics as arenas of social change. To trace these transnational networks to the articulation of norms supportive of indigenous claims, we examine two cases of transnational indigenous activism and domestic responses in the Andean region of South America. We find that the additional dimension of domestic and transnational mobilization that first contests existing international norms, such as neoliberalism and individual rights, and then seeks to diffuse normative changes at both the domestic and international levels provides new insight about norm formation, transformation, and diffusion in international politics in favor of anti-globalization and community equality norms on local, national, and global levels.

Keep Them in the Ground: Ending the Fossil Fuel Era

Coal, oil, and gas—fossil fuels: we can’t do without them. They are the life-blood of modern industrial civilization. These highly concentrated, widely available stores of energy have unleashed modern civilization’s astonishing productivity, liberating billions of people from drudgery and insecurity. Finding more fossil fuels and getting them to markets around the world is the challenge of our times.

Are They Living What They Learn?: Assessing Knowledge and Attitude Change in Introductory Politics Courses.

Many assessment studies are devoted to discovering whether student knowledge increases after successful completion of a specific course; fewer studies attempt to examine whether students undergo a change in their values and attitudes as a result of that coursework. Given the continuing emphasis on assessment and the fulfillment of core curriculum goals at universities across the country, we designed a two-phase study of student learning outcomes in both core curriculum and major requirement courses. In addition to measuring changes in student knowledge, we also examine student attitude changes as a result of taking Introduction to World Politics or American National Government. We theorize that teaching such courses may impact student attitudes in such a way as to increase both knowledge and the likelihood of political participation. As such, our study provides insights into whether our students are meeting established student learning outcomes, but it also has implications for public policy and politics. Using data from a multiple-semester study, we find that introductory-level courses in both American and world politics not only lead to increases in student knowledge about and interest in politics but also affect slight but significant changes in political attitudes.

Constructing Rights of Nature Norms in the US, Ecuador, and New Zealand

Governments around the world are adopting laws granting Nature rights. Despite expressing common meta-norms transmitted through transnational networks, rights of Nature (RoN) laws differ in how they answer key normative questions, including how to define rights-bearing Nature, what rights to recognize, and who, if anyone, should be responsible for protecting Nature. To explain this puzzle, we compare RoN laws in three of the first countries to adopt such laws: Ecuador, the US, and New Zealand. We present a framework for analyzing RoN laws along two conceptual axes (scope and strength), highlighting how they answer normative questions differently. The article then shows how these differences resulted from the unique conditions and processes of contestation out of which each law emerged. The article contributes to the literature on norm construction by showing how RoN meta-norms circulating globally are infused with differing content as they are put into practice in different contexts, setting the stage for international norm contestation.

Book Review: Aubertin, Catherine, and Estienne Rodary, eds. 2011. Protected Areas, Sustainable Land?. Surrey, England: Ashgate Press

While many who study the environment accept as positive the establishment of protected areas, editors Catherine Aubertin and Estienne Rodary take normative judgments out of the equation and artfully demonstrate the complex political, economic, and social dynamics of the increasing number of protected areas on our planet. Protected areas, used as a tool of sustainable development, have expanded in their scope and purposes to cross territorial and societal boundaries. International agreements, anancing mechanisms, and institutions create new barriers and opportunities for sustainable development. Protected areas bring up potential conoicts between nature and society. In addition, local and global connections forged for their protection may allow states to fulall international agreements, but at the cost of saving their prized biosphere or world heritage sites through the requirements and loss of control of international anancing. The authors in this edited volume skillfully examine the conoicts and modes of consensus that arise from these new global management structures, and suggest new areas of analysis and investigation. They highlight a set of profound questions for those of us who study environmental policy and biodiversity: What is the role of science and scientists? How do our studies and andings affect not only the conservation of nature, but also the wellbeing of the societies that function within it? The book is divided into three sections: discussion of the expansion and types of protected areas (marine and terrestrial), examination of the tools used to protect them, and case studies on the various types of protected areas on the planet. Core strengths of this analysis are the examination of understudied issues such as marine protected areas and their links with terrestrial and networked coastal areas, the relationship between international environmental law and protected areas, a comparison of African and Amazonian protected areas, and a comparative analysis of French versus U.S. perspectives on conservation. These case analyses are not only rich in environmental policy, but also include signiacant scientiac explanations that inform the andings. The authors redeane protected areas not as static museums, as they were in the late-1800s and early 1900s, but rather as dynamic ecological reserves with diverse societal groups that interact within them. Notably, the authors point out the difaculties of marine protected areas (MPAs) as they interact with other