PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Contemporary Global Concerns — I
Examine the main problems and challenges involved in looking after environmental concerns in world politics.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 environment once peripheral → now the archetypal borderless global issue → Buzan: central to the security agenda R2 a borderless problem handled through a state system → each government answers to national interest first → managing it is structurally hard
Body flow
Hardin's tragedy of the commons → responsibility diffused, states free- ride → no consensus across development levels → short-term gain vs long-term sustainability → North-South divide → Dauvergne: improve the environment vs reform an unfair system → Guha: empty-stomach environmentalism, emissions without representation → historical responsibility + CBDR
Counter-view
agreements are reached and institutions do exist (cooperation not impossible) → but weak enforcement, diluted responsibility (CSE: Paris, Katowice finance) and US withdrawal (Ban Ki-moon) blunt them
Conclusion routes
R1 obstacles are political, not technical → reconciling national interest with a shared planet R2 IPCC: 1.5°C budget exhausted by 2030 even under Paris → urgency demands a common-good, differentiated approach
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
