Confronting Environmental Change in East and Southeast Asia: Eco-Politics, Foreign Policy and Sustainable Development by Paul G. Harris

Author:Paul G. Harris [Harris, Paul G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Development, Sustainable Development, Political Science, Public Policy, Environmental Policy
ISBN: 9789280811131
Google: fzC7AAAAIAAJ
Goodreads: 1889066
Publisher: Earthscan
Published: 2004-12-01T00:00:00+00:00

Table 7.1 Explaining executive involvement and policy: four logics

Interestingly, each side interprets the on-going conflict as resulting from the violation of rights. Argentina argues its environmental rights are being threatened by the plants, while Uruguay claims the bridges blockades encroach on the country’s right to pursue economic development. Both countries claim to defend their right to sustainable development, but they conceive of it as protecting very different interests. Uruguay claims to uphold the country’s economic interests and its right to seek foreign direct investment, whereas Argentina maintains both its environmental and economic rights are at risk.

By analyzing how local civil society can affect the foreign policy choices made by top decision-makers in Argentina, this chapter contributes to the study of the domestic determinants of environmental foreign policy. In so doing, it departs from systemic approaches and locates itself at the intersection between the society- and state-levels of analysis as defined by Barkdull and Harris in Chapter 2. Our chapter seeks to show the connection between the views and preferences of civil society actors and the policy choices of top decision-makers.

Finally, on a more practical stance, we believe both policy-makers and advocates engaged in institutional-building and management of shared natural resources can benefit from the lessons drawn from this case study. One of the main findings of this study is that local activists were successful in reaching top decision-makers partly because of the kind of ties they forged with their allies. Specifically, local activists sought ties with different social, economic, and political actors, which resulted in the development of broad “green” networks. This, in turn, helped forge a powerful all-inclusive coalition rallied around the goal of pursuing environmental rights by stopping the construction of the plants.

In the remainder of this chapter, we first analyze the case at hand through the analytical framework offered by contentious politics, water policy, issue salience, and environmental institutions in Argentina. Second, we explain why Argentina pursued an “international” strategy to deal with the conflict. We conclude by discussing some of the implications of this study for environmental advocacy and environmental foreign policy.

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