Ozone discourses

In Ozone Discourses, Karen T. Litfin examines the Montreal Protocol, which constituted the first treaty on a global environmental problem and demonstrated the possibility of successful collaboration among scientists, policymakers, activists, and industry. "Knowledge brokers" employed their understanding of atmospheric science to supplant the short-term perspective of policymakers and industry representatives with a wider, intergenerational timeframe necessary for precautionary action. Ozone Discourses spans the rift between theory and practice, using the international ozone treaty-making process as a lens through which to comprehend the employment of scientific knowledge as a political tool. In her comprehensive history of ozone politics from its emergence in the 1970s to the second revision of the Montreal Protocol in 1992, Litfin argues that existing models of international relations which focus on material factors as the exclusive root of power are flawed. Applying a Foucauldian equation of power and knowledge to the ozone debate, she demonstrates how scientific knowledge can be used to gain political clout. Discourse theory is used to show how rival groups used the available body of scientific knowledge to frame the issue in light of their favored policy options. Ozone Discourses is unique in its use of discourse theory to describe the intersection of scientific knowledge and political power, and unmatched in its comprehensive analysis of the ozone treaty-making process over the past two decades. The timely subject matter and cross-disciplinary scope of Litfin's work will attract readers interested in environmental or political issues, policy analysis, international relations, postmodern theory, or the sociology of knowledge.