American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State - Hardcover

provides a useful framework for analyzing international environmental policy ... For those interested in the US involvement in those conferences, this study is rich with detail. It should be added to any library on international environmental policy ... the book is worthwhile for activist, policymaker, and scholar alike. (Richard A Matthew, Environment Vol 41 No7, Summer 1999)

Hopgood adds some interesting detail to the picture of shambolic progress in US policy-making in the run-up to and during the Earth Summit.

this book makes an interesting argument about the role of the state in international environmental politics. (J Samuel Barkin, Political Science Quarterly, Fall 99)

The work is based on extensive primary research and represents a significant contribution to theories of international relations and foreign policy. - International Environmental Studies. Vol 56. 1998

Hopgood paints a realistic picture of American environmental policy making and links many of his arguments to named people, often with strong personal views. This is refreshing and emphasises how abstract policies are interpreted, distorted, and used by the people who work with them. - Nicholas C, Flemming in American Studies Vol33 No1 1999

Although it is not clear that large-scale environmental conferences are the most representative aspects of US foreign environmental policy, the depth with which they are examined will certainly prove useful to anyone who cares about understanding the US policy process in general or environmental policy specifically. - DeSombre, Choice Jan 1999 Vol.36 No.5

In an increasingly interdependent world, marked by growing numbers of non-governmental organizations and international institutions, American Foreign Environmental Policy presents a powerful argument for the continued relevance of the state to our understanding of international relations. Drawing on detailed primary research, the author examines the key role central state officials have played in formulating American foreign environmental policy, and concludes that claims for the diminishing domestic-international divide, and the erosion of state sovereignty are overstated. Nonetheless, in arguing forcefully that the focus for explanation should lie with politics inside the institutions of state, Hopgood rejects Realist, Pluralist, and Marxist accounts of foreign-policy making. His state-centric focus allows for domestic and international factors to play a role at the same time as stressing that, in foreign environmental politics at least, the state remains the dominant policy-making institution.

This pathbreaking study represents a major contribution to International Relations theory, whilst at the same time, offering a wealth of fascinating, original, empirical research which will be of interest to all those working in the field of environmental studies.