Abstract
This project seeks to better understand how a contemporary issue such as climate change impacts the international system, and therefore how the theories of IR are able to respond to such an issue. It argues that the international relations theories of realism and liberalism are ill-equipped and inadequate to understand the impact of climate change on IR and how it fundamentally changes the conditions of the international system. Due to the assumptions made by both realism and liberalism, the end result is that the international system continually perpetuates the same actions and leaves little room for evolution and change. Fortunately, the emerging theory of social green theory has a strong ability to understand this issue. It brings together this critical historical perspective of the structures that currently direct the international system paired with normative values rooted in environmental sustainability to make an ideal theoretical perspective for understanding the transformation that climate change has on our understanding of the international arena. The first chapter seeks to understand what informs both realism and liberalism of its conception of the international arena and the critiques to its approach. Based on the central arguments of the theories, the second chapter will then use them to understand how these theories try and comprehend the impact that climate change has on the international system. The final chapter of this work then brings in the theory that is argued is superior to both realism and liberalism in its ability to address climate change in the international system, green theory. The superiority of green theory will be demonstrated by introducing its central arguments before subjecting it to the same analysis that realism and liberalism received in the second chapter before concluding that social green theory should become the theoretical perspective by which we understand climate change in the international arena.
Advisor
Weber, Desiree
Department
Political Science
Recommended Citation
Kinnaman, Curtis, "The Conundrum Of Climate Change: Examining The Reactions Of Mainstream International Relations Theories" (2022). Senior Independent Study Theses. Paper 9656.
https://openworks.wooster.edu/independentstudy/9656
Publication Date
2022
Degree Granted
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type
Senior Independent Study Thesis
© Copyright 2022 Curtis Kinnaman