UNEP in Global Environmental Governance: Design, Leadership, Location
- 1 February 2010
- journal article
- Published by MIT Press in Global Environmental Politics
- Vol. 10 (1), 30-59
- https://doi.org/10.1162/glep.2010.10.1.30
Abstract
As debates on reform of global environmental governance intensify, the future of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has come into acute political focus. Many argue that the organization has faltered in its role as the UN's leading agency for the environment. In this article, I use historical institutional analysis in combination with current international relations and management theory to explain UNEP's creation and evolution. Having described how the creators of UNEP envisioned the nascent organization, I analyze its subsequent performance, identifying the key factors that have shaped its record. I argue that the original vision for UNEP was ambitious but fundamentally pragmatic, and that the organization's mixed performance over the years can be explained by analysis of three factors: its design, leadership, and location. Thus, this article clarifies the record on UNEP's intended function, and lays the foundation for a systematic methodology for evaluating international organizations.Keywords
This publication has 15 references indexed in Scilit:
- Good Climate Governance: Only a Fragmented System of International Law Away?Law & Policy, 2008
- Designing the United Nations Environment Programme: a story of compromise and confrontationInternational Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 2007
- The Role of UNEP and UNDP in Multilateral Environmental AgreementsInternational Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, 2005
- Addressing the Global Governance DeficitGlobal Environmental Politics, 2004
- The Emerging Debate on the Need for a World Environment Organization: A CommentaryGlobal Environmental Politics, 2001
- The Organization of the ImpossibleGlobal Environmental Politics, 2001
- The Case for a World Environment OrganizationEnvironment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 2000
- Economic Geography and the Location of TNCs: Financial and Professional Service FDI to the USAJournal of International Business Studies, 2000
- Institutions:United Nations Environment ProgrammeEnvironment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, 1994
- The Role of the UN in Environmental ProblemInternational Organization, 1972