ABSTRACT
A broad range of environmental measures, from the local and regional up
to the global level, cannot deceive about the ever deepening crisis of global
environmental change. To understand these contradictory processes a cri-
tical analysis-which assesses the relevance of environmental policy in light
of the broader societal context in which such attempts are situated-is
helpful. From its very beginning, the enthusiastic ‘‘Spirit of Rio’’ of the
early 1990s was overshadowed by two developments relatively independent
of one another, which already gave rise to pessimism. On one hand, neoliberal politics, which, following the debt crisis, was expressed and enforced
in North-South relationships in neoliberal structural adjustment programs
and also gained importance in Northern countries and international poli-
tical institutions. On the other hand, a ‘‘New World Order’’ was called for
by then-President George Bush in reaction to the first Iraq war in 1991.
