The geopolitics of regionalism: The Valdivia Group and southern hemispheric environmental co-operation

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 19, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 725-743

  Dodds, Klaus ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY; GEOPOLITICS; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; REGIONALISM; SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE;

EID: 0032452912     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436599814217     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. An earlier version of this paper was presented to a conference on Geopolitics and Globalization in a Post-Modern World held at Haifa and Ben-Gurion Universities, 23-30 January 1998. I owe thanks to the British Council in Israel for travel support and also for the financial support of the Department of Geography and the Research Strategy Fund, Royal Holloway, University of London. David Simon and Stuart Prior offered some very helpful comments on an earlier draft. The usual disclaimers apply. There is now a large literature on the relationship between regionalism, globalisation and state power. Sec R Gibb & W Michalak (eds), Continental Trading Blocs: the Growth of Regionalism in the World Economy, London: John Wiley, 1994
2. L Fawcctt & A Hurrell (eds). Regionalism in World Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995
3. A Gamble & A Payne (eds), Regionalism and World Order, London: Macmillan, 1995
4. D Lake & P Morgan (eds), Regional Orders: Building Security in a New World, University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 1997
5. E Mansfield & H Milner (eds), The Political Economy of Regionalism, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
6. Some authors have argued that the ending of the Cold War has also provoked a crisis of meaning within international politics, as old categories such as First and Third World lose their ideological and practical significance. See Z Ladi, A World Without Meaning, London: Routledge, 1998. Geopolitical uncertainties, therefore, appear to abound for both North and South.
7. There has been a variety of interpretations put forward for the growth of regional organisations in the past 20 years. For arguments relating to the growing deterritorialisation of the state, see S Corbridge, R Martin & N Thrift (eds). Money, Power and Space, Oxford: Blackwell, 1995
8. F Block, The Vampire State and Other Stories, New York: New Press, 1996
9. J Andcrson "The shifting stage of politics: new medieval and postmodern territorialities', Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 14, 1996 pp 133-153
10. P Evans 'The eclipse of the state? Reflections on stateness in an era of globalization', World Politics, 50,1997, pp 62-87. For arguments relating to regional organisations and increased bargaining power in international negotiations on trade and commerce, see K Anderson & R Blackhurst (eds), Regional Integration and the Global Trading System, London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1993.
11. A Hurrell, 'Security in Latin America', International Affairs, 74(3), 1998, pp 529-546.
12. The full name for the Valdivia Group is the Group of Temperate Southern Hemispheric Countries on the Environment. The Australian government established a web page for the Valdivia Group in 1996: . Interestingly the cartographic logo for the Valdivia Group is centred on the Antarctic continent rather than adapted from a Mercator projection. This polar-centred projection highlights not only the relative proximity of these southern hemispheric states but also their collective geographical distance from the northern hemisphere.
13. Opening Statement of the Valdivia Group issued by the Chilean Government 9-10 March 1995.
14. On MERCOSUR, see J Grugel & W Hout (eds), Regionalism across the North/South Divide, London: Routledge, 1998. On the South Atlantic Zone of Peace and Co-operation, see K Dodds 'South Africa, the South Atlantic and the international politics of Antarctica', South African Journal of International Affairs, 3, 1995, pp 60-80; and
15. D Venter, 'South Africa, Brazil and South Atlantic security: towards a zone of peace and co-operation in the South Atlantic', paper presented to the International Relations Research Institute on Brazil and Africa du Sol, Rio de Janiero, 24-25 September 1996. On the Indian Ocean Rim initiative
16. see G Campbell & M Scerri, 'The prospects for an Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) economic organization'. South African Journal of International Affairs, 3, 1995, pp 11-37.
17. For a recent elaboration of this theme, see J Baylis & S Smith (eds), The Globalization of World Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press; and I Clarke, Globalization and Fragmentation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
18. N Thrift & A Leyshon 'A phantom state? The de-traditionalization of money, the international financial system and international financial centres', Political Geography, 13, 1994, pp 299-327; M Waters, Globalization: An Introduction, London: Routledge, 1995; J Schölte, Globalization, London: Macmillan, 1997; and G ÖTuathail, A Herod & S Roberts (eds), An Unruly World!, London: Routledge, 1998.
19. See S Strange, "The defective state', Daedalus, 124, 1995, pp 56-71; and L Weiss, The Myth of the Powerless State, Cambridge: Polity, 1998.
20. T Brenton, The Greening of Machiavel!!: The Evolution of International Environmental Politics, London: Earthscan, 1994; M Miller, The Third World in Global Environmental Politics, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1995;
21. J Vogler & M Imbcr (eds), The Environment and International Relations, London: Routledge, 1995; G Porter & J Brown, Global Environmental Politics, Boulder, CO: Wcstview Press, 1996; and T Doyle & D McEachern, Environment and Politics, London: Routledge, 1998.
22. A Hurrell 'A crisis of ecological viability? global environmental change and the nation state', Political Studies, XLII, 1994, pp 146-165; J Kakonen (ed), Green Security or Militarized Environment? Aldershof Dartmouth, 1994; and M Paterson, Global Warming and Global Politics, London: Routledge, 1996.
23. R Benedict, Ozone Diplomacy, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.
24. V Shiva 'Biodiversity, biotechnology and profit", The Ecologist, 20, 1990, pp 44-47; and Shown Monocultures of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology, London: Zed, 1993. See also G Wilson (ed), Biodiversity, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1990; and A Soto "The global environment: a southern perspective", in G Hastcdt (ed), One World, Many Voices, Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Prentice Hall, 1995, pp 300-325.
25. P Chatterjee & M Finger, The Earth Brokers, London: Routledge, 1994; M Williams, "The Group of 77 and global environmental polities', Global Environmental Change, 7, 1997, pp 295-298; and N Mabey, S Hall, C Smith & S Gupta, Arguments in the Greenhouse, London: Routledge, 1997.
26. S Dalby, 'Continent adrift? Dissident security discourse and the Australian geopolitical imagination', Australian Journal of International Affairs, 50, 1996, pp 59-75; and R Higgot & K Nossal, "The international politics of liminality: relocating Australia in the Asia-Pacific', Australian Journal of Political Science, 32, 1997, pp 169-187.
27. J Mittelman, 'Rethinking the new regionalism in the context of globalization, Global Governance, 2, 1996, pp 189-213.
28. For a flavour of some of the diverse work on regional integration, see C Potholm & R Fredland (eds), Integration and Disintegration in East Africa, Lanham: University Press of America, 1980
29. S Milward, The Reconstruction of Western Europe 1945-1951, London: Methuen, 1984; F Butler 'Regionalism and integration', in J Baylis & S Smith (eds). The Globalization of World Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press; and D Simon (ed), Reconfiguring the Region: South Africa in Southern Africa, London: James Curry, 1998.
30. J Nye (ed). International Regionalism: Readings, Boston, MA: Little, Brown, p. vii, 1968.
31. S Dalby 'A continent adrift?', in ibid, Dalby, 'Contesting an essential concept: reading the dilemmas in contemporary security discourse", in K Krause & M Williams (cds), Critical Security Studies, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997, pp3-31; and Dalby 'The threat from the South: global justice and environmental security', in D Dcudney & R Matthews (eds), Contested Grounds: Security and Conflict in the New Environmental Politics, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997.
32. Personal communication with Ruth Pearce, First Assistant Secretary, International Organizations and Legal Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 31 January 1997.
33. S Lawson (cd), The New Agenda for Global Security?, Sydney: Alien and Unwin, 1995.
34. K Dodds, Geopolitics in Antarctica: Views from the Southern Oceanic Rim, Chichester: John Wiley, 1997.
35. After the 1992 Rio Summit, the UN Commission on Sustainable Development established an Intergovernmental Panel on Forests in April 1995 to discuss global forestry issues. The Panel has not come to an agreement at present on a global forestry convention, in part because of the difficulty in securing agreement between logging companies, governments and NCOS.
36. On biodiversity and the 1992 convention signed at the Rio Summit, see Benedict, Ozone Diplomacy; R Vellve, Saving the Seed, Genetic Diversity and European Agriculture, London: Earthscan, 1992; Catholic Institute for International Relations, Biodiversity, London: CIIR, 1993; and Chaterjee Finger, Earth Brokers.
37. This story is cited in Miller, The Third World in Global Environmental Politics, p 89.
38. Personal communication with David Gamble of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 21 August 1996.
39. The fourth meeting of the Co-ordinating Committee of the Valdivia Group was held on 24-25 June 1998.
40. Final Report of the Working Group on Climate Change, Buenos Aires, 21-23 May 1996.
41. The website created for news about the Valdivia Group is .
42. M Paterson, Global Politics and Global Warming, London: Routledge, 1996. For some theoretical implications of global environmental issues on forms of state sovereignty, see A Hurrcll 'International politics theory and the global environment', in K Booth & S Smith (cds), International Relations Theory Today, Cambridge: Polity, 1995, pp 129-153.
43. 'Minister officially welcomes international environment forum", Media Release by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 13 March 1996.
44. For the negotiations leading to the Kyoto Summit on Climate Change, see Paterson, Global Politics and Global Warming.
45. World Wide Fund for Nature, 'WWF position statement for cop3', Kyoto, Japan, 1-10 December 1997.
46. For details on the Antarctic controversy and the Australian policy shift, sec A Bcrgin, 'The politics of Antarctic minerals: the greening of white Australia', Australian Journal of Political Science, 26, 1991 pp 216-239, ; L Elliot, International Environmental Politics: Protecting the Antarctic, New York: St Martin's Press, 1994.
47. B Cummings, 'Rimspeak', in A Dirlik (ed), What is in a Rim? Critical Perspectives on the Pacific Region Idea, Boulder, CO: Lynne Ricnner, 1993.
48. See D Mares 'Regional conflict management in Latin America: power complemented by diplomacy', in D Lake & P Morgan (eds), Regional Orders: Building Security in a New World, University Park PA: Penn State University Press, pp 195-218.
49. 'Welcoming statement by Alexander Downer to the Second Meeting of the Co-ordinating Committee of the Valdivia Group', Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canberra, 14 March 1996.
50. J Sidaway & D Simon, 'Geopolitical transition and state formation: the changing political geographies of Angola, Mozambique and Namibia', Journal of Southern African Studies, 19, 1993, pp 6-28; and K Dodds 'Creating a strategic crisis out of a communist drama: Argentine and South African geo-graphs of the South Atlantic', European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 56, 1994, pp 33-55.
51. Dodds, Geopolitics in Antarctica, 133.
52. Campbell & Scerri, "The prospects for an Indian Ocean Rim (IOR) economic organization'.
53. See Sanjay Chaturvedi's analysis of the IOR-ARC in this volume.
54. Dodds, Geopolitics in Antarctica; and S Prior, Antarctica: View from a Gateway, Wellington: Centre for Strategic Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, 1997.
55. The earliest incidents of illegal fishing concerned Argentine trawlers fishing for toothfish around South Georgia in the early 1990s. The British government has been the most active in monitoring fishing in the region and in enforcing fisheries protection measures. See the official publications of CCAMLR for a statistical analysis of the problem. CCAMLR, Staiisitical Bulletin 1996, Hobart: CCAMLR, 1996.
56. J Sumby 'Fisheries rampage in Southern Ocean', Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (Australia), October 1997; The Age (Melbourne), 'Antarctic poaching war heats up' 7 June 1997; and Guardian (London), 'Old threats to Antarctic linger as new curbs come into force', 15 January 1998.
57. Source of statement contained in a personal communication to the author from Stuart Prior of the Antarctic Policy Unit, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 23 January 1998.
58. S Upton, 'A vision for Antarctica: the environmental challenge', address by Simon Upton, Minister for Environment, to Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties, Christchurch Town Hall, 19 May 1997.
59. See R Tooze 'International political economy in an age of globalization', in Baylis & Smith, The Globalization of World Politics, pp 212-220.
60. New Zealand has taken a lead in encouraging the participation of NCOS in the policy-making process. It has also been active in encouraging further dialogue with other southern hemispheric states outside the Valdivia Group.