Mitchell (political science, U. of Oregon) presents an explanatory introduction to international environmental politics. He "defines what international environmental agreements are and then reviews explanations of why humans harm the natural environment, why some of these harms emerge on the international scene, why negotiations sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, and why some international environmental treaties alter behavior and others do not." Chapters focus on particular outcomes as dependent variables and explain which independent variables and intergovernmental processes lead to outcomes, covering both explanations based on structure and those based on agency. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)