ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to explore the theoretical and empirical links between environmentalism, as a transnational new social movement, and globalisation, as a new phenomenon in politics. It poses an essential question: in what ways is the global environmentalist network shaping patterns of global relations, as they converge over the general issue of environmental sustainability? This is indeed a pertinent question in the current political context: states are ill-equipped to handle environmental issues; such issues have arisen through the impulse of environmental groups; the latter have proliferated globally in recent years; finally, environmental problems best illustrate the global (or ‘total’) character of politics.
