Striving for No: Saudi Arabia in the Climate Change Regime

Joanna Depledge
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Joanna Depledge: Joanna Depledge is Sutasoma Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College, and Associate at the Centre of International Studies, at Cambridge University (UK). She is the co-author of The International Climate Change Regime: A Guide to Rules, Institutions and Procedures (2004) and author of The Organization of Global Negotiations: Constructing the Climate Change Regime (2005). She has worked as writer/editor for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin, and also for the UN Climate Change Secretariat.

Global Environmental Politics, 2008, vol. 8, issue 4, pages 9-35

Abstract: The international relations literature often assumes that negotiators in global regimes are actively seeking a collective agreement to the problem on the table. There are cases, however, where a delegation may instead be "striving for no," that is, participating with the aim of obstructing a deal. This article explores the challenges surrounding such cases of "obstructionism," using the example of Saudi Arabia in the climate change regime. It examines the evidence for diagnosing Saudi Arabia as an obstructionist in that regime, the delegation's negotiating tactics, strategies for addressing obstructionism, and finally the repercussions for both the climate change regime, and Saudi Arabia itself. In conclusion, the article considers whether Saudi Arabia may be moving beyond obstruction. (c) 2008 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2008

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