Change in Global Environmental Politics
Temporal Focal Points and the Reform of International Institutions

‘As we stare down at the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution and waste, the stakes have never been higher for multilateral action. Michael W. Manulak's engaging book provides a comprehensive overview of five decades of global environmental politics and affords us important insights into reinvigorating multilateralism to address challenges of a dynamic world.' Inger Andersen, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme

‘In this original and fascinating work, Michael W. Manulak expands our understanding of the dynamics and evolution of global environmental governance. Drawing on a set of compelling historical case studies, he shows how high-profile multilateral events, in and of themselves, can drive institutional breakthroughs, by focusing the minds of policymakers and reinforcing convergent expectations about the possibility-and desirability-of new forms of international cooperation.' Stewart M. Patrick, James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program, Council on Foreign Relations

'Scholarship on international institutions has paid insufficient attention to temporality: explaining when successful initiatives occur. Michael W. Manulak fills this important gap in the literature with his account of temporal focal points: salient moments in time around which negotiations can coalesce. Change in Global Environmental Politics: Temporal Focal Points and the Reform of International Institutions, which focuses in detail on environmental agreements, makes an important contribution to our understanding of international institutional change.' Robert O. Keohane, Princeton University (emeritus)

‘Manulak’s book offers the tools for understanding, explaining, and creating system-wide and long-lasting change. It provides well-evidenced arguments which call for broader attention to timing in social sciences and serves as an insightful repertoire of lessons for change entrepreneurs; mapping past conditions that have facilitated change and inviting them to prepare and be ready to seize upcoming opportunities.’ Simon Beaudoin, Environmental Politics