When Constructivism Tackles the Negotiation of International Environmental Problems: Helping Understand What’s at Stake

The study of background conditions that support and calls for international action has recently been part of the analytical worries in negotiation studies. This paper tries to address the attempts done by political scientists to understand these conditions in international environments. Being elements recurrently studied and assessed by International Relations theories, these conditions have special appreciation through constructivist analysis. Through constructivist tenets, this paper will analyze, considering the agenda of environmental problems, the actors relevance and their attachment to the theme; their interests and motivations; relations and understandings of power among them; the role of science and epistemic communities; the role of institutional forums; the importance of interdependence and how trends emerge and shape the international society towards tackling and negotiating international environmental problems. Conversely, this paper furthers its approach by taking the constructivist analysis to the negotiation strategies for reaching agreements, generating goals, agendas, policies and the like.