The State and Social Power in Global Environmental Politics examines how the difficult issues of social, political, and economic relations will complicate the efforts initiated at the June 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The contributors argue that national governments must begin to acknowledge the role of new actors in their environmental policies.

The authors of these original essays—including Jesse C. Ribot, James N. Rosenau, Barbara Jancar, and Ann Hawkins—envision a world in which governments, driven by various pressures, find themselves increasingly bound to common efforts and joint solutions.