Global Environmental Issues and IR Theories: A Pluralist Theoretical Approach
Global Environmental Issues and IR Theories: A Pluralist Theoretical Approach

Summary/Abstract: This article considers the English School as an underutilized reaserch resource in the field of international relations (IR). Its defining attributes are its methodologial pluralism, its historicism, and its interlinking of three main concepts: international system, international society and world society. Parallels are also drawn among the three IR traditions – international system, international society and world society – as the English School differentiates them. This paper points out that the current globalization process reinforces the transnational paradigm that focuses on non-state actors, with a new configuration emerging in which politics loses the hierarchical position implied by realism. Finally, a pluralist theoretical approach is proposed as the most appropriate for research in the area of international environmental politics.

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