Course Offerings / PhD Student Research
An Interdisciplinary Approach - We integrate emerging science, engineering, and business concepts with more traditional subjects such as economics, international law and policy, negotiation, diplomacy, resource management, and governance systems.
Course Offerings
DHP P213m: Managing Complex Systems: From Dynamic Networks to Tipping Points
Efforts to improve the human condition without causing harm are oftentimes dependent on our understanding of the principles that underlie complex systems. Complex systems try to determine how the relationships between dynamic networks give rise to the collective behaviors of a social system and how the social system interacts and forms a relationship with its environment. This seminar introduces the added value of taking a systems approach to managing complexity and introduces two methods and software applications for systems analysis. It begins by exploring several case studies that relate to the three pillars of sustainability, i.e., economic growth, environmental protection and social development; the case studies will focus on business management, climate change and armed conflicts. This seminar equips students with the conceptual and analytical skills they need to study and manage complex systems across various disciplines. Fall Semester. Professor Moomaw and Patrick Meier
DHP P223: Developing Countries and the Global Politics of Sustainable Development
The premise of this seminar is (a) that despite the problems of definition, a global politics of sustainable development is emerging which not only includes the intersection of environment and development but has come to embody a growing set of concerns related to social development, human security and global governance; (b) that the developing countries of the ‘South’ have embraced this new global politics as a way to rearticulate their longstanding desire for systemic international reform; and (c) in doing so, they have not only changed the global environmental discourse but have themselves changed. The course will explore how the Southern interest in sustainable development has shaped, and been shaped by, multilateral environmental negotiations, institutions for global environmental governance, and the rise of non-governmental actors over the last thirty years. We will focus on the negotiation behavior of the G77, an unlikely group of over 130 developing countries that have dramatically different economic, ideological, political, and environmental conditions but have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of internal divisions as well as external threats. Spring Semester. Associate Professor Banuri.
DHP P250: Elements of International Environmental Policy
This course is designed to provide an introduction to international environmental policy development beginning with the scientific identification of the problem, the assessment of its economic and social impact, and the political forces that shape international agreements. The course examines five case studies that illustrate the range of international problems facing diplomats and corporations. Bilateral, multilateral and common issues are studied using examples of air, water, hazardous waste, and biological resource issues. The emphasis is on the development of effective policy solutions based on sound scientific and economic information that meet the often-divergent political positions of negotiating nations. Fall Semester. Professor Moomaw.
DHP P251: International Environmental Negotiations
Approximately 900 environmental treaties have now been negotiated between and among nations, most of them during the past twenty years. The unique nature of environmental problems has brought a new style to international negotiations, which relies much more heavily on scientific and other technical expertise. Because the scientific knowledge base is constantly evolving, far more flexible, process-oriented treaties are being negotiated to address environmental issues than has traditionally been the case in other areas. This seminar brings together a scientist and a negotiation specialist to examine with students the nature of the international environmental negotiation process and its evolution. Examples of bilateral and multinational negotiations of treaties and agreements are examined in a variety of contexts. The role of actors other than negotiators are explored and their role and influence on agreement outcome are identified. Fall Semester. Professor Moomaw and Adjunct Professor Susskind.
DHP P253m: International Biodiversity Conservation
The UN-sponsored Millennium Ecosystem Assessment argues that the loss of ecosystem services will make it impossible to achieve the development goals of the world's poorest nations. In turn, the loss of ecosystem services is directly related to the loss of the Earth’s diverse assemblage of genes, species and ecosystems—all of which are diminishing worldwide at a rapidly expanding rate. This course examines the causes and consequences of this loss of biological diversity and assesses how governments, civil society, and the private sector have responded to the problem at binational, multilateral, and global scales. By coming to an understanding of the origins and operations of ten specific multilateral environmental agreements and institutions, the class will explore the increasingly complex dynamics between these multiple actors and interests. A dominant theme running throughout the course will be the tension between “preservationist” ideals and “conservationist” approaches to the sustainable use of biological resources. One-half credit. Spring Semester. Adjunct Assistant Professor Chester.
DHP P257: Corporate Management of Environmental Issues
This objective of this course is to examine environmental issues from the point of view of large corporations. Corporations are critical players affecting the environment because they control vast resources, and changes in their mode of doing business can have significant impacts on air, water, waste production, and raw material use. Public policy makers concerned with environmental issues seek to change corporate behavior with respect to the environment, but often have an inadequate understanding of how companies work. As a consequence, policies may be ineffective or unnecessarily contentious. Topics include: strategy and organization; staffing for environment; health and safety; accountability for environmental performance; ethics; corporate environmental policies; pollution prevention; management tools; accident response; companies and non-governmental organizations; response to laws and regulations; international issues; environmental accounting; corporate social responsibility; and voluntary codes of conduct. Note: This course is cross-listed as CEE/UEP 265. Fall Semester. Adjunct Lecturer Rappaport.
DHP P258: Clean Energy Technologies and Policy Issues
This course considers current issues in power generation, identifying the technologies used to meet the Clean Air Act regulations by the electric utilities and the automobile manufacturers. Topics include the electric utility deregulation, distributed power sources, new energy markets, fuel efficiency, and global effects of fossil fuel use. Alternative fuels and engines will be examined from the point of view of technology readiness and global market penetration to curb air pollution and decrease carbon emissions. The costs of energy technologies and the global impacts of present policies in the U. S. and abroad will be evaluated. Cross-listed as ChE 173. Spring Semester. Professors Moomaw and Flytzani-Stephanopoulos.
ILO L223: Seminar on International Environmental Law
This course will introduce some of the principal subject areas in this rapidly expanding area of increasing importance to the study of both environmental and international law. After an introduction and overview designed to familiarize students with basic principles, the course will take up specific, substantive subject areas of current interest, such as ‘greenhouse’ effect; stratospheric ozone depletion; acid rain; Antarctica; trade and the environment; exports of hazardous substances; environmental impact assessment; and bilateral issues with Canada and Mexico. The treatment of these individual subject matter areas is designed to develop skills of utility in this and other areas of international practice, such as treaty interpretation, and an appreciation of the role of law in international discourse. The course will stress broad-gauge legal and policy themes and the development of analytical skills rather than the assimilation of specific information related to the subject matter areas studies. Fall Semester. Adjunct Professor Wirth.
EIB E246: Natural Resource and Environmental Economics
This course will introduce students to the underlying concepts and major debates in contemporary environmental economics. Building on basic concepts from microeconomics, this course emphasizes how environmental degradation takes place in market economies and how incentives can be designed to protect the environment. Topics covered will include resource consumption, innovation, international trade and the environment, global climate change, and environmental regulation. Special attention will be paid to how such issues play out in Mexico and Latin America. Students will engage in empirical data analysis to test relevant environmental economics hypotheses. Open to students who have completed E201 or equivalent Background in basic statistics and working knowledge of excel is encouraged. Spring Semester 2008. Adjunct Associate Professor Harris.
EIB E248: Economic Development and the Environment
This seminar examines the relationship between urbanization and environmental degradation. Why is urbanization taking place? How does urban population and income growth affect urban quality of life? The course carefully analyzes the cases where economic development and globalization will improve urban quality of life and other scenarios in which local quality of life would be degraded. The role of government in potentially mitigating externalities is explored. Political economy issues of whether governments have the will and the resources to solve quality of life problems are analyzed. Students must have a solid understanding of the basic principles of microeconomics, development economics and basic statistics. Spring Semester, not offered in 2008.
IR502: Transnational Security Issues
This class will examine what we call non-traditional threats to national security: the security of the United States or any other nation. Traditional security studies often views threats to national security as coming from other nations, and increasingly from non-state actors. This is true; however, new threats arising from changing environmental and social conditions are no less dangerous, and no less applicable to the field of IR and security studies. Climate change, resource availability, demographics, and globalization are changing the very foundation on which nations build their security, and security planners of the future will need to understand how and why CO2 may present a bigger threat than an ICBM. This course will be taught in the Spring Semester at Boston University by Elizabeth Chalecki.
ENVR E130: Global Climate Change - the Science, Social Impact and Diplomacy of a World Environmental Crisis
This introductory course will give students an integrated overview of the science of climate change and an analysis of the implications of this change for patterns of daily life in their own circumstance and around the world. The course has three principal objectives. First, it will introduce students to the science of climate change, drawing attention to the latest research and evolving pattern of scientific data that has emerged on climate in recent years. Second, emphasis will be given to analyzing the social changes and adaptations that human communities have already made and those they will most likely to have to make as the Earth’s climate continues to change in the coming years. Finally, specific attention will be given to the diplomatic efforts that have been launched since the creation of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) during the first world-wide Earth Summit on the environment in Rio de Janeiro in June of 1992. This course will be taught in the Spring Semester at Harvard University Extension School by Professors Weiskel and Moomaw. http://www.climate-talks.net/2007-ENVRE130/
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PhD Student Research
Over the past 20 years, CIERP has had numerous PhD students researching key aspects
of international environment and resource policy.
- White, Wayne Clayton. Defining Sustainability for Hydropower Development: The Lao Case. (1994)
Read abstract. - Moreman, Philip M. Private rights of action to enforce rules of international regimes. (2005)
Read abstract. - Chester, Charles Chauncey. Biodiversity over the edge: Civil society and the protection of transborder regions in North America (Canada, United States, Mexico). (2003)
Read abstract. - Gallagher, Kelly Sims. Foreign direct investment as a vehicle for deploying cleaner technologies: Technology transfer and the Big Three automakers in China. (2003)
Read abstract. View publications - Gallagher, Kevin Paul. Economic integration, environment, and development: Assessing the Mexican experience. (2003)
Read abstract. - Reyes Mendy, Francisca. Exploring the green promises of deliberative democracy: A multi-country analysis. (2003)
Read abstract. - Smith, Wendin Davis. Security in the Russian environment: State-civic contention in the nuclear defense complex. (2003)
Read abstract. - Soliman, Iman. The role of the public and knowledge management as determinants of environmental policy formulation in developing countries: The case of Egypt. (2003)
Read abstract. - Vongpivat, Pratana. A national innovation system model: Industrial development in Thailand. (2002)
Read abstract. - Logan, Carolyn J. Rebuilding Somali political systems: Growing new roots in indigenous realities, or merely reconstructing the past? (2002)
Read abstract. - Margesson, Rhoda. Improving third party intervention in the Balkans: integrating environmental concerns in the response to humanitarian emergencies (2002).
- Makdisi, Karim Samir. Trapped between sovereignty and globalization: Implementing international environmental and natural resources treaties in developing countries. The case of Lebanon. (2001)
Read abstract. - Ney, Luke Anthony, Jr. An empirical assessment of virtual water: The impact of liberalization of agricultural subsidies and international trade on irrigation water demand. (2001)
Read abstract. - Rotberg, Fiona Jillian Yates. The local community and preservation of biodiversity: Project cases from Central America and Mexico. (2001)
Read abstract. - Sawin, Janet Laughlin. The role of government in the development and diffusion of renewable energy technologies: Wind power in the United States, California, Denmark and Germany, 1970—2000. (2001)
Read abstract. - Afful-Koomson, Timothy. Implications of international timber certification for Ghanaian timber exports and sustainable forest management. (2000)
Read abstract. - Nathan, Ari. Market mechanisms and cultural
values in negotiating multilateral environmental agreements: The case of the Kyoto Protocol. (2000)
Read abstract. - Unruh, Gregory Charles. Escaping carbon lock-in. (1999)
Read abstract. - Deutz, Andrew M. Institutionalized review processes of the adequacy of commitments in international environmental agreements. (1997)
Read abstract. - Papasavva, Stella. Reducing the risk of global warming from CFC alternatives: A scientific basis for policy options. (1997)
Read abstract. - Konishi, Aya. Waste paper trade and recycling: The implications for development and environment in India. (1995)
Read abstract. - Situma, Francis D. P. Legal protection of biodiversity with reference to agricultural and medicinal plants. (1995)
Read abstract. - Leonard, Suzanne Barbara. An empirical analysis of the adoption of energy conservation measures in developing countries. (1993)
Read abstract. - Montgomery, Mark A. Want not, waste not: A realist theory of the international trade in hazardous waste. (1993)
Read abstract. - Shaw, Christopher L. Insatiable demands: Income, energy and environmental policy in Madagascar. (1993)
Read abstract. - Harland, David J. The African Elephant in International Law. (1992)
Download PDF abstract. - Khan, Jehangir Alam. The international law of joint resource development with special reference to its functional role in the management and resolution of boundary and territorial disputes involving natural resources. (1991)
Read abstract. - Strohm, Laura A. The environmental politics of the international waste trade. (1991)
Read abstract. - Katz, Andrea S. The design of sustainable development: Economic and environmental values coalescing origins, theory, and application. (1988)
Read abstract. - Livada, Valentin Radu. The legal, political, strategic, technical and environmental implications of arctic basin resources. (1977)
- Wilson, William Edgar. Environment as a cross-national problem: Great Lakes water pollution, 1948—1972. (1974)
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