ABSTRACT
This part presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part explores three major themes relating to the environment: the effect of the environment upon politics, the impress of politics upon the environment, and the public management of the environment. It focuses on long-standing questions and attempt to identify some of the conceptual problems, major theories, methodological difficulties, and future research needs which are implicit in political-environmental studies. The environment provides the context for the interaction among these elements; in fact, the environment obtains meaning only in its relations with that which it environs. Environmental impress upon politics also poses the problem of determining the unit of analysis. The former comprises the environment lying beyond the boundaries of the political system but within the same society, whereas the latter refers to whatever lies beyond society's boundaries, usually the international ecological, social, and political systems.
