The Politics of Climate Change as an Existential Problem

Professor Robert O. Keohane will give a lecture titled The politics of climate change as an existential problem on 23 March 2022.

Climate change is an existential problem since it threatens the fate of the human race within the present century. Professor Keohane will discuss the politics of climate change under the following headings:

• The necessity of decarbonization and policies needed for decarbonization;
• The problem of political inertia;
• Getting moving: public and private investment and technological innovation;
• Making climate policy central for governance;
• Finding strategic openings for public mobilization;
• Putting social pressure on business;
• Forming international climate clubs.

All participants will have an opportunity to comment and ask questions using chat.

You can also submit your questions before the meeting using the following form.

Links to the Meeting

• MS Teams
• Youtube

Professor Robert O. Keohane is a world-renowned expert on international relation, one of the most important creators and influential representatives of modern neoliberal international theory.
Professor Keohane is one of the most frequently cited political science/IR scholars. He is an author of such influential monographs as: Transnational Relations and World Politics (1972, co-authored with  Joseph S. Nye); After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (1984); Power and Independence: World Politics in Transition (1977, co-authored with Joseph S. Nye); Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World (2002); The Regime Complex for Climate Change (2010, co-authored with David G. Victor).

Professor Keohane is a former president of American Political Science Association and International Studies Association, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences; he is a Professor Emeritus at the Princeton University, he also thought at Duke University, Harvard University and Stanford University. He won the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, 1989, and the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science, 2005.

Profesor Robert O. Keohane’s lecture is a part of the series of lectures within the project “State, Diversity, and Security. Studies on Interdependencies in Contemporary World”, carried out by Dr Piotr Obacz – Assistant Professor in the Chair in the History of Polish Political Thought, Institute of Political Science and International Relations, Faculty of International and Political Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.

SCHEDULE OF LECTURES:

• February 28: Prof. Avigail Eisenberg, University of Victoria
• March 8: Nick Pope, former officer of British Ministry of Defence, now independent expert, advisor and publicist
• March 23: Prof. Robert O. Keohane, Princeton University
• April 12: Prof. Bogusław Pacek, a retired Major General of the Polish Army, Jagiellonian University, Chair in East and South Asia, Institute of the Middle and Far East, Faculty of International and Political Studies
• April 26: Prof. Artur Gruszczak, Jagiellonian University, Chair in National Security, Institute of Political Science and International Relations, Faculty of International and Political Studies
• May 10: Prof. Brygida Kuźniak, Jagiellonian University, Chair in Public International Law, Faculty of Law and Administration
• May 24: Prof. Oriane Calligaro, Université Catholique de Lille
• May 31: Prof. John Ishiyama, President of American Political Science Association, University of North Texas

The project “State, Diversity, and Security. Studies on Interdependencies in Conteporary World” is supported by a grant from the Priority Research Area “Heritage”, Didactic-Educational Minigrants Edition I, under the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.

The aim of the project is to organize innovative online interdisciplinary lectures as part of the series "State, diversity and security. Studies on interdependencies in contemporary world”. They will be given by renowned scholars, prominent academics and important public figures from various countries. The lecture series is aimed at students and Ph.D. candidates of the Jagiellonian University, especially of the Faculty of International and Political Studies, who will have a unique opportunity to meet recognized experts - political scientists, lawyers and specialists in security and international relations - and, most importantly, to broaden their knowledge and cognitive horizons. Lectures will be devoted to the fundamental problems and challenges of today’s world, which have a fundamental impact on human life, the functioning of states and societies, and which may affect their future. This series will be particularly important for students and Ph.D. candidates of the Jagiellonian University as it will enable presentation of selected problems and challenges not as isolated cases but as elements of global processes taking place under conditions of interdependence, growing with progressive globalization.

If you would like to submit questions to our experts and/or issues you would like to be discussed, please contact the Project manager and at the same time the host of the meetings – Dr Piotr Obacz: piotr.obacz@uj.edu.pl.