Table Of ContentEnvironmental Politics and Foreign
Policy Decision Making in Latin America
Although the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to address global
climate change, has been regarded by many as an unsuccessful treaty both
politically and environmentally, it stands as one of the world’s few truly
global agreements. Why did such a diverse group of countries decide to sign
and/or ratify the treaty? Why did they choose to do so at different times and
in different ways? What explains their foreign policy behavior? Amy Below’s
book builds off the increasing significance of climate change and uses the
Kyoto Protocol as a case study to analyze foreign policy decision making in
Latin America.
Below’s study takes a regional perspective in order to examine why coun-
tries in Latin America made disparate foreign policy choices when they were
faced with the same decision. The book looks at the decisions in Argentina,
Mexico, and Venezuela via a process-tracing method. Below uses informa-
tion obtained from primary and secondary documents and elite interviews
to help reconstruct the processes, and augments her reconstruction with a
content analysis of Conference of the Parties speeches by presidents and
country delegates. The book complies with convention in the field by argu-
ing that systemic, national, and individual-level factors simultaneously
impact foreign policy decisions, but it makes the additional claim that role
theory most accurately accounts for relationships between variables.
Environmental Politics and Foreign Policy Decision Making in Latin
America considers a variety of factors on individual, national, and interna-
tional levels of analysis and shows that the foreign policy decisions are best
viewed through the prism of role theory. The book also draws conclusions
about the value of role theory in general and about environmental foreign
policy decisions in developing countries, which will be of value to both
policy makers and academics.
Amy Below is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Oregon State
University.
Role Theory and International Relations
Edited by Cameron G. Thies, University of Iowa,
and Juliet Kaarbo, University of Edinburgh
The R ole Theory and International Relations Series aspires to attract and
publish the latest and best research integrating knowledge in the field of
international relations with role theory. This aspiration cuts across a wide
swath of subfields, including foreign policy analysis, peace and security stud-
ies, international political economy, diplomatic studies, and international
organization. While each of these subfields of study is presently organized
as an “island of theory,” this series intends to integrate their signature phe-
nomena within a system of knowledge, a “theory complex,” or an alliance
among different subfields. This series showcases the ability of role theory
to generate useful theoretical insights on its own or in combination with
existing theories across these traditional subfields. Role theory’s conceptual
repertoire, plus its ability to span multiple levels of analyses and the major
meta-theoretical divides in the discipline, position it to be an important inte-
grative force in the study of international relations.
1. Rethinking Foreign Policy 3. Role Theory and the Cognitive
Analysis Architecture of British
States, Leaders, and the Appeasement Decisions
Microfoundations of Behavioral Symbolic and Strategic Interaction
International Relations in World Politics
Edited by Stephen G. Walker, Akan Stephen G. Walker
Malici, and Mark Schafer
4. Environmental Politics and
2. The United States, Israel, and the Foreign Policy Decision Making
Search for International Order in Latin America
Socializing States Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol
Cameron G. Thies Amy Below
Environmental Politics
and Foreign Policy Decision
Making in Latin America
Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol
Amy Below
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of Amy Below to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Below, Amy.
Environmental politics and foreign policy decision making in Latin
America : ratifying the Kyoto Protocol / Amy Below.
pages cm. — (Role theory and international relations ; 4)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Environmental policy—Latin America. 2. Latin America—
Foreign relations—Decision making. 3. Latin America—Foreign
relations—21st century. 4. Environmental protection—International
cooperation. 5. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change (1992 May 9). Protocols, etc. (1997 December 11) I. Title.
GE190.L29B45 2014
363.7ʹ0561098—dc23
2014032658
ISBN: 978-0-415-70330-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-79474-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Elsa and Quinton
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Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xi
Acknowledgements xiii
PART I
1 Role Theory and the Kyoto Protocol 3
2 Theoretical Debates in International Relations
and Foreign Policy Analysis 14
3 Role Theory and Foreign Policy Decisions 27
4 Role Articulation and Performance 42
PART II
Argentina
5 Menem’s Voluntary Commitment to the United States 61
6 Role Conceptions and President Menem 77
PART III
Mexico
7 Zedillo’s Dual Move for Stewardship and Leadership 91
8 Role Conceptions and President Zedillo 110
viii Contents
PART IV
Venezuela
9 Chávez’s Revolutionary Change of Heart 123
10 Role Conceptions and President Chávez 144
PART V
11 International Context and Changing Roles 159
12 Conclusions and Contributions: Role Theory Assessed 172
Appendix: Methodological and Theoretical Considerations 187
Bibliography 191
Index 199
Figures
4.1 Relationships between Role Articulations 55
12.1 Determinants of Role Makers versus Role Takers 180
