Summary/Abstract
The primary goal of this paper is to call the attention of the international relations (IR) community developments around climate engineering and international politics. Thus it offers an overview of the existing academic literature on the international politics of climate engineering, and a preliminary assessment of its strengths and lacunae. The paper traces several key themes in this corpus, including problem structure; the concern that climate engineering could undermine emissions cuts; the potentially ‘slippery slope’ of research and development; unilateral implementation; interstate conflict; militarization; rising tensions between industrialized and developing countries; and governance challenges and opportunities. The international politics of climate engineering are then considered through the lenses of the leading IR theories (Realism, Institutionalism, Liberalism, and Constructivism), exploring what they have and — to a greater degree — what they could contribute, as well as potential lines of inquiry. Many informed observers — though only a few disciplinary IR scholars — have asserted that climate engineering has the potential to alter international relations in profound ways. Scholars rooted in the major IR theories should have much to say on a number of topics related to climate engineering, including its power and transformational potentials, the possibility of counter-climate engineering, issues of institutional design, international law, and emergent practices. The paper argues that it is incumbent on the IR community, whose defining focus is international relations, to turn its attention to these unprecedented technologies and to the full scope of possible ramifications they might have for the international system. If climate engineering field research or even implementation moves forward, knowledge and insights from IR, spanning the diverse range of leading theories, could play a crucial role in helping ensure that it proceeds on a well-informed basis grounded in our best understanding(s) of world politics.