Special Issue on the Environment
Introduction ~ Special Volume / Fall 2008
This Special Environmental Issue of the SAIS Bologna Center Journal of International Affairs is an important step forward in deepening SAIS’s commitment to addressing the international policy and governance challenges posed by climate change and other regional and global environmental issues. The range of subjects covered in this issue—treaty regimes, religion and the environment, technology, trade policy, carbon markets, social entrepreneurship, public choice theory, national security and public health—testifies to the breadth of interests and knowledge of the faculty and students involved.
A unifying theme of the issue is the importance of public policy and institutional design in “getting the incentives right” so that both public and private sector actors will find it in their self-interest to take actions that will benefit our broader common interests. Public policy and institutional design choices must in turn be informed by a sophisticated understanding of what really motivates those actors and how they are likely to respond to policy interventions in different situations. Creating such an understanding has been one of the foci of the International Policy Program at SAIS. U.S. and other leaders must recognize that markets and technological change will not produce satisfactory solutions to climate change and other global issues unless they are accompanied by well-designed policies and institutions.
On a more personal note, I have been involved with energy and environmental studies at SAIS for more than twenty years as a participant in Dr. Wilfrid Kohl’s Global Energy and Environment Initiative and as an adjunct faculty member. Dr. Bill Zartman and I taught the first SAIS course focused on climate change negotiations as an example of international regime formation in 1993-94. Since then I have twice had the privilege of joining Dr. Scott Barrett in teaching the successor to that course. I feel proud to have witnessed the growing interest in environmental policy among SAIS students. The launching of the Special Environmental Issue of the BC Journal is a wonderful expression of that interest and I hope that you will find it as interesting and helpful as I have.
William A. Nitze
