This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Global Environmental Politics (GEP). To commemorate this occasion, we reached out to the previous editors of GEP to ask them to identify the most interesting and impactful articles that have shaped the journal’s history. This edition reflects the evolution of the journal, identifying areas in which GEP scholars have helped influence the field of global environmental politics and governance.
The journal was founded in 2000 by Peter Dauvergne, who had the foresight to bring together the growing scholarship in the area of global environmental politics. We asked Peter to reflect on this early vision: “I was aiming to create an interdisciplinary publishing space for the growing number of researchers who were studying the global environmental consequences of political institutions and power struggles, from international treaties to grassroots movements. I was also wanting to develop an outlet for articles exploring the implications of escalating ecological damage for world politics. Finally, I was hoping the journal would help advance global sustainability by deepening the understanding of the politics of environmental change.”
The journal has evolved over the years. During its first few years, the journal published short commentaries (Current Debates), research articles, and book reviews. The short commentaries have morphed into the Forum Section, which aims to generate thought and debate around timely issues in global environmental politics. Under our editorship, we have introduced Research Notes to expand the conversation in the GEP community and provide discussions of new data sources and research techniques as the ways we study global environmental politics evolves. Yet, even with these small changes, the journal has continued to publish articles that reflect the community’s commitment to inclusive scholarship. The journal remains a focal point for scholars from multiple disciplines and perspectives that are pushing our knowledge of global environmental politics forward.
Of course, there are a few caveats pertaining to the articles that follow. We chose not to include any articles that were written by any of the previous editors. Nor did we include many articles from our tenure as editors. The articles in this special collection are only a snapshot of the work that has been published in GEP over the last two decades. We all agree that we could have easily picked another ten or twenty articles to profile. And as such, we hope that this special collection will only whet your appetite to go back through the journal to revisit the many exceptional contributions over the last twenty years.