Back to the Future or Back to Our Roots? Twenty-Five Years of Global Environmental Politics

Abstract As we celebrate twenty-five years of Global Environmental Politics, this article reviews major trends in the journal. Results are organized around the three main areas of scope: global, environmental, and political. The global scope expanded somewhat, but the largest change was the deepening of scholarship across levels of analysis. The environmental scope is now dominated by climate change, which crowded out other issues but also created a critical mass of knowledge that helped advance the field. The political scope started with emphasis on systemic drivers of environmental degradation but then quickly shifted to the design and implementation of specific institutions. This detailed research created a mountain of evidence to show that, while rules and norms can make a difference, their effectiveness is constrained by disconnects between actors who have the power to govern the environment and those who have the incentives to do so. Scholars who recognize this trend are returning to the journal’s roots, emphasizing empowerment as a method to address systemic barriers to effective environmental governance and thereby get closer to a future that is just and sustainable.