‘The Politics of Climate Change Negotiations is an engrossing account of international climate change negotiations, which also makes a major theoretical contribution to the study of negotiations. Of course, the lessons are not just theoretical and one can only hope that those due to meet in Paris in 2015 heed the lessons of history.’
– Dr. Larry Crump, Griffith APEC Study Centre, Griffith University, Australia
‘Christian Downie's historical look at the negotiating behavior of the United States and the European Union during international efforts to implement a meaningful climate change treaty, go a long way toward explaining why current negotiations are bogged down. His findings about the impact of domestic politics on international negotiations should not be overlooked. The only way we will able to move to a new set of enforceable and meaningful greenhouse gas reduction commitments is to understand why past approaches have not worked.’
- Lawrence Susskind, Harvard Law School, US
‘This is an enormously well-researched study that addresses an important hitherto-unanswered problem of negotiations. Usually single instances are analyzed but what about serial negotiations that return again and again to the subject, where the parties change position in their course? Downie tells us how this happens and in the process, enriches our understanding of negotiation. I enjoyed reading this book.’
- I. William Zartman, The Johns Hopkins University, US
‘Christian Downie has written an excellent book on the politics of prolonged international negotiations. Looking centrally at the area of climate change, Downie unpacks how and why state preferences shift over long time horizons. The book will be of interest to academics and practitioners concerned with international relations (IR) theory, comparative politics, and (most importantly) the evolution of climate negotiations.’
– Carbon and Climate Law Review
