Speaking Private Authority

Speaking Private Authority: The Construction of Sustainability in Forests and Fisheries is a fresh and innovative investigation into a central issue of our times: How to effectively govern the protection of our environment. This is an area in international relations relegated to the problem of the world's commons and generally neglected or sidestepped by major scholars and schools of thought in the discipline. Nonetheless, Robert Flores confronts it fearlessly and ingeniously by focusing on the vital role of discourse linking different social networks towards the promotion of private authority in the governance of our stressed environment. This is an original, exhaustive, and excellently argued work. Its conclusions are highly instructive to other cases beyond forestry and fisheries. In sum, this is a theoretical contribution and a lesson about how to conduct meaningful research regarding the protection of our environment. I highly recommend it. --Felix E. Martin, Florida International University Combining careful empirical analysis with creative theoretical argument, Speaking Private Authority develops a unique and revealing perspective on the dynamics of private authority in global environmental governance. Flores shows how private actors can leverage their unique position as 'network connectors' to generate new social identities and relations of authority. In so doing, he contributes to our understanding of the constitutive foundations of authority in world politics and the increasingly central role that non-state actors play in global governance. --John Oates, Florida International University