UNEP in Global Environmental Governance: Design, Leadership, Location

Maria Ivanova
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Maria Ivanova: Maria Ivanova is Assistant Professor of Government and Environmental Policy at The College of William and Mary and Director of the Global Environmental Governance (GEG) Project at the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy. She holds a PhD in international environmental policy from Yale University. Her research focuses on global environmental governance, the effectiveness of the United Nations, and the role of the United States in international environmental affairs. During the 2009/2010 academic year she is a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. She is the co-editor of Global Environmental Governance: Options & Opportunities (with Daniel Esty) and has published in International Environmental Agreements, SAIS Review of International Affairs, Review of European Community and International Environmental Law, Cadernos Adenauer, and numerous edited volumes.

Global Environmental Politics, 2010, vol. 10, issue 1, 30-59

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. (c) 2010 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Date: 2010
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