The untold story of the world's leading environmental institution: UNEP at fifty. By MariaIvanova. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. 2021. 376pp. $23.61 (paper)
本书基于近两百次访谈和深入研究，回顾联合国环境规划署五十年来的成败与挑战，分析其能力、连通性和公信力，适合学者、政策制定者和学生了解全球环境治理的演变。
As socio-ecological challenges multiply and intensify, expertise in environmental institutions is crucial. This is exactly what Maria Ivanova's book, The Untold Story of the World's Leading Environmental Institution: UNEP at Fifty, delivers: well-documented, original, and expert knowledge on the “anchor institution for the global environment” (p. 7). Close to 5 decades after the creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1972, Ivanova takes stock and situates UNEP's successes, challenges, and opportunities. The book offers occasions to learn from past experiences and understand why “[e]nvironmental problems persist, and [why] global environmental governance has not delivered on its original promise” (p. 3). Informed by in-depth research, Ivanova's compelling narrative provides clues to better understand the past and prospects of UNEP. Ivanova shows that numerous factors have come to shape UNEP over the years. The book presents an account of the legacy of the 1972 Stockholm Conference and how it continues to permeate UNEP and global environmental governance to this day (Chapters 1 and 2). Ivanova also illustrates how the dual mandate of UNEP—operational and normative— influences its identity (Chapter 3). Moreover, the existence of interlinked environmental issues—from ozone depletion to climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, desertification, and deforestation—require the program to act on many fronts (Chapter 4), and its location in Nairobi, Kenya, shapes its ability to deliver on its mandate (Chapter 5). Ivanova also provides key insights into how subsequent executive directors played a fundamental role in UNEP's evolution (Chapter 6). Throughout the book, expert information on how these interacting factors influenced UNEP is presented. Ivanova's vast multi-year research enterprise on UNEP pays off. The author's historical investigation helps better understand how UNEP influenced environmental governance or failed to do so and why various initiatives and reform efforts faced opposing outcomes. Informed by close to two hundred interviews, numerous participations in global environmental discussions and negotiations, and an in-depth historical study of the institution's past, the author's account provides many well-informed and original insights. The book was a missing piece in the political science, international law, and international relations literature. It is value-added for scholars, policymakers, diplomats, lawyers, and activists wishing to grapple with the factors that shaped UNEP over time. It offers a telling case of how UNEP could play a key role in conveying global discussions, catalyzing efforts at all scales, and collaborating in implementing integrated solutions (p. 211–18). This book is a useful companion for researchers, teachers, and practitioners aiming to understand better and ultimately influence global environmental politics. It provides an excellent introduction to the history of UNEP and the executive directors who shaped the program over time. Students of global environmental politics, diplomacy, institutions, and cooperation will greatly benefit from reading it. One of the book's strengths consists in its detailed account of UNEP's past and the factors that influenced its evolution and performance. Ivanova provides an account of UNEP's performance over the years based on three main indicators: (1) capacity, (2) connectivity, and (3) credibility. For the author, these are influenced respectively by (1) people and resources, (2) infrastructure and representation, and (3) authority and legitimacy (see p. 19–24 and Chapter 7). By doing so, the book brings valuable insights into the multifaceted process of institutional change. Another notable contribution of the book consists in investigating many reform efforts that took place over the last decades to change UNEP's structure, vision, and work. Finally, the author also offers a detailed analysis of how UNEP's executive directors and the broader context in which they operated were foundational in shaping UNEP (Chapter 5). Such investigations are relevant for the study of agency, leadership, and the role of high-level decision-makers in steering an international organization. As the result of scientific analysis and research conducted by the author, the book provides a novel and insightful narrative of UNEP. It teaches us to look at multiple factors simultaneously when attempting to explain institutional performance and change. Finally, Ivanova highlights the potential of UNEP to play a catalyst role by “[m]aping connections among issues and organizations” (p. 212). Only time will tell if UNEP realizes its full potential. The account of UNEP offered by the book, however, would have benefited from a greater exploration of UNEP's operational activities and more detail on the institutional ecosystem in which UNEP works. This would, in turn, allow us to better evaluate the success and limiting factors of UNEP's past performance and understand where the organization stands within the UN system. Insights from more recent efforts would also be useful to complement the overview of UNEP's contribution to answering environmental issues provided in the fourth chapter. Avenues for further research include comparing different leverage points for adapting UNEP to the problems it aims to answer and inquiring into how UNEP could be recentered and empowered within the UN system to deliver on its coordination mandate. In such endeavors, Ivanova's contributions will be valuable.