ABSTRACT
The conservative and conventional thinking of international relations (IR) has it that environmental problems are yet another set of pressing ‘issues’ to be addressed by students of international relations, whilst at the same time available for relegation to a tokenistic subset of concerns alongside questions of gender and racism (Smith 1993). The irreducible and timeless fundamentals of war, security and ‘national’ self-interest remain, in this portrayal, relatively undisturbed by the marginal, if endearing, frettings voiced by restless greenies around the world in general, and by some in the IR academic community in particular. Thus, the rejection of environmentalism arises from the conviction that environmental degradation does not undermine any of the foundations of the orthodox practice and theorisation of IR.
