Preface

Since the early 1990s, we have witnessed the growth of a body of knowledge on regulating global climate change. Mitigating global climate change is one of today's major global environmental problems and can only be achieved by substantial collaboration across countries. For this reason, scholars of international relations have become particularly interested in this topic. Their various conceptual, theoretical, and methodological approaches to global climate change contribute to better understanding both the achievements accomplished to date as well as the challenges ahead in accounting for the causes, consequences, and the responses to a pressing problem of international public policy. This article synthesizes much of the knowledge provided by scholars in the field of international studies. It will therefore help to assess the state of the art as well as provide an overview for decision-makers and others interested in climate change and international polic y.

From the outset, the concept for this article was developed as a joint venture between co-editors Detlef Sprinz of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK, Potsdam/Germany) and Urs Luterbacher of the Graduate Institute of International Studies (Geneva/Switzerland). A review of the state of the art, encompassing a broad diversity of theories and methodologies, has always to rely on specialist authors who contribute their expertise. The contributions of Daniel Bodansky, Urs Luterbacher, Matthew Paterson, Kal Raustiala, Ian Rowlands, Detlef Sprinz, and Hugh Ward provide cutting-edge, up-to-date knowledge on the international response to global clim ate change in a compressed, non-technical style of presentation.

The project was launched in mid-1994 with funding generously provided by the director of the Potsdam Institute, Prof. H.J. Schellnhuber for two authors' meetings in Geneva and Potsdam in 1994.

The present manuscript greatly benefited from the reviews provided by a number of outside experts. In particular, we wish to acknowledge the detailed comments by Thomas Gehring, Carsten Helm, James Morrow, Sebastian Oberth¨ąr, Steve Rayner, Arild Underdal, and David ictor.

No collaborate project succeeds without the helpful hands and minds of good secretarial support and research assistance. Denise Ducroz arranged the authors' meeting in Geneva and provided secretarial support on early drafts of the manuscripts. The Potsdam meeting was assisted by Ursula Binder, Petra Schellnhuber, and Andreas Wahl. The production and redrafting of the final manuscript relied on the never-ending enthusiasm of Sarah Huber. Collaborating on an international relations state-of-the art review on the timely topic of global climate change has been a very rewarding enterprise for the co-editors. Together with the authors, they share the responsibilities for any shortcomings of the manuscript. The contents of this article reflects the opinions of the co-editors and authors and not those of the respective institutions (or their respective funding agencies) with which the editors or authors are affiliated.

• climate change, global warming