Many writers either glorify globalization or vilify it, particularly for its destructive environmental effects. In this book environmental sociologist Arthur Mol provides a more balanced understanding of the relationship between globalization and environmental quality. Mol bases his arguments on his theory of ecological modernization, which holds that although processes of modernization and globalization often result in environmental degradation, they also can encourage policies and programs designed to arrest degradation and improve environmental quality.

To be effective, an international regime must play a significant role in solving or at least managing the problem that led to its creation. But because regimes—social institutions composed of roles, rules, and relationships—are not actors in their own right, they can succeed only by influencing the behavior of their members or actors operating under their members' jurisdiction.

Much of our experience with innovative approaches to governance at the international level involves natural resources and the environment. Whereas the Cold War bred an intense concern with the preservation of existing institutions, the emerging environmental agenda has prompted an awareness of the need for new arrangements to achieve sustainable human/environment relations.

Global Accord is a holistic approach to a complex set of environmental issues. It provides a much-needed analytical framework for examining how individuals, groups, and nations create environmental dislocations, and how nations can work together to solve ecological problems that cross their borders. The fifteen essays cover theoretical and empirical dimensions, actors and processes, law and economics, and international institutions and systems.

Global Environmental Accords series