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Why do some cities join transnational climate change networks while others do not? This study examines the factors that drive cities' participation in transnational climate change networks, such as the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the Cities for Climate Protection program. Hierarchical analysis of 256 cities in 118 countries suggests that the degree of cities' globalization, or their level of "global cityness," is positively associated with the cities' membership in the global networks. The level of individual cities' integration into the international economy and transportation grid is crucial for sharing ideas of global environmental responsibility. This tendency is found both in global cities of both developing and developed countries. Hierarchical models also suggest that attributes of cities—not country attributes such as democracy, income level, and being an Annex I country under the Kyoto Protocol—account for cities' memberships in transnational networks.

Australia is one of the largest coal exporting nations in the world and its economy is underpinned by the availability of cheap fossil fuels. It is well documented that it has failed to act on climate change, and that the conservative Howard government was particularly hostile to international action. It is also well documented that 2007 was an agenda‐setting period when climate change was elevated to national prominence. This paper details and interrogates the ultimately successful Labor national governments' efforts to establish an Australian carbon pricing mechanism. It considers whether irresistible normative forces for climate policy change overcame the previously immovable object of economic and political self‐interest, and the power of the carbon lobby. In explaining complex climate policy dynamics, temporal scales and politics, it finds great utility in John Kingdon's pragmatic "policy window"1 as an explanation for Australia's climate policy change.

ObjectivesSexual selection theory suggests patterns of covariance among polygynous mating behaviors and ecological variables at the cross‐national level. We quantified national levels of polygyny using the human polygyny index (HPI), a ratio of men's to women's variability in the numbers of sex partners over the past year.MethodsHPI scores were available for 48 nations from the International Sexuality Description Project (Schmitt, 2005), and were used to test three hypotheses: (1) human polygyny should be associated with increased intrasexual competition (e.g., high male‐male aggression and resource competition), (2) human polygyny should be associated with features of natural and intersexual selection (e.g., high pathogen stress and an emphasis on physical attractiveness in mate choice), and (3) human polygyny should be associated with early and more prolific reproduction.ResultsAll three hypotheses received at least partial support.ConclusionsDiscussion focuses on the limitations and implications of the current findings.

Throughout 2002 and early 2003, George W. Bush claimed Iraq was seeking weapons of mass destruction. His allegations about Baghdad's programs were later shown to be false. He genuinely, but incorrectly, believed that Iraq was seeking biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons despite substantial evidence that contradicted his beliefs. Why did the 43rd president believe that Iraq was developing these capabilities despite a lack of confirming evidence? I use Margaret Hermann's Leadership Trait Analysis to argue that Bush manifests unusually high levels of distrust of others and that this accounts for his incorrect beliefs about Iraq. Finally, this finding is significant because it suggests that distrust of others is a powerful variable that may be applied to a range of cases to better understand the how and why of leadership and decision-making in international politics. Adapted from the source document.

International audience The aim of this article is to show the way women were represented in the revolutionary theatre of the times of Great Terror (1793—1794). After three years of social and political changes brought by the Revolution women are no longer shown as possessions of their families or husbands. Although marriage remains the focus of their existence, they all fight to have a good life and a good marriage with a respectful partner, rather than with an all-mighty master who despises them. Many of female characters we meet are very independent and self-conscious — especially the younger generation who are well aware of the possibility of divorce. Men change too; fathers no longer decide for their daughters, while unfaithful husbands improve their behaviour, as they all know that the basis of general and personal happiness is a happy marriage.

This article provides a comparative discourse analysis of the climate responsibility narratives of Australian and Norwegian political leaders during the period 2007–2012. The analysis focuses on how political leaders imagine their country's identity and role in the world and how they connect (or disconnect) these identities, roles and interests with responsibility for climate change, and with their respective energy policies. The analysis shows that the striking differences in mitigation ambition and responsibility discourses between Australia and Norway are clearly related, but cannot be reduced, to differences in their relative dependence on fossil fuel. Rather, differences in national identity and international role conception provide a far more illuminating account than a simple interest‐based explanation. However, Australia and Norway are not quite so "poles apart" on their energy policies, and I briefly explore the implications of climate policy hypocrisy.

Mexico is rising. You can see it in the country's swelling exports, the net-zero migration to the US, the excitement of international bond investors, a recent credit upgrade from Standard & Poor's, a newly confident middle class, and a per capita GDP that has doubled since 2000. Not to mention a young, dynamic, handsome new president. In case you missed all these signs, though, you can also see Mexico's surge forward in a Scotch whisky ad. The television spot says nothing about the product but everything about the country's long march from poverty toward prosperity. The Brookings Institution's Homi Kharas estimates that the global middle class will hit 4.9 billion people by 2030, growing by 3 billion from today -- and they'll spend $56 trillion a year, up from 521 trillion today. Virtually all that growth will come from emerging economies. Adapted from the source document.

More than half the world's population lives in cities, and over two-thirds of the world's cities will be exposed to flooding within the next 30 years due to factors including climate change, land subsidence, sea level rise, and socio-economic development. Traditionally, flood management has concentrated on providing protection against floods using technical measures, but there is currently an international shift towards more integrated flood risk management, whereby flood risk is defined as the probability of flooding multiplied by the potential consequences. Governance plays a key role in this transition. However, relatively little has been written on how climate governance lessons are implemented on a city-scale. Several characteristics of recent climate change adaptation governance, relating to its structure, orientation, content, and timeframe, are gleaned from the research literature. Flood risk management of two cities -- Jakarta and Rotterdam -- is examined. Adapted from the source document.

La participation a aujourd'hui le vent en poupe. Du niveau local à l'échelle internationale, un grand nombre d'expériences sociales et politiques menées au nom de la participation inventent, avec des publics hétérogènes, de nouvelles modalités de construction du vivre ensemble. Véritable laboratoire à ciel ouvert, la participation semble désormais un horizon incontournable de nos sociétés. Derrière ce concept se cache cependant un foisonnement de dispositifs et de méthodes disparates utilisés dans des contextes très variés. Ce sont ces réalités participatives concrètes qui font l'objet de ce livre. En mêlant approches théoriques et empiriques, méthodes quantitatives et qualitatives, cet ouvrage propose une mise en perspective originale, collective et plurielle de la participation en action. Par leurs regards croisés, les contributions, qu'elles proviennent de praticiens de terrain ou du monde académique, proposent une réflexion tournée vers les pratiques innovantes qui fabriqueront la participation de demain.