Page - 165 - in Loss and Damage from Climate Change - Concepts, Methods and Policy Options

6 ThePoliticsof (andBehind) theUNFCCC’sLoss… 165 membersof thePhilippines insurance industryparticipated in the forumbyprovid- ing technical expertise.A separate eventwas also hosted by the PSI togetherwith the Philippines Insurers and Reinsurers Association the day following the forum (UNEPFI2016).Thisevent involveddiscussionof theL&D,andinvolvedmembers ofExCom.Chapters13(Schäferetal.)and21(Linnerooth-Bayeretal.)of thisbook lookat the roleof insurance forL&Dingreaterdetail. 6.4 TheL&DNegotiationProcessThroughtheLenses of IRTheories In theprevious sectionattentionwasdrawn to thedifferent actors involved inL&D negotiations, describing their positions and contributions. In particular,we empha- sisedthatdevelopingcountries’negotiators,includingAOSIS,afterlongnegotiations managed to reach at least a partial victory in terms of theWIMandArt. 8 of the ParisAgreement.Wenowinvestigatethissomewhatsurprisingvictoryfromdifferent IRperspectives tobetterunderstand thecomplexitiesoffinding international agree- ment on L&D solutions.More specifically, we look at L&Dnegotiations through the lenses of themain school of thoughts in IR, namelyneorealism, liberalismand constructivism(Snyder2004).Webelieve thatapluralisticapproach isnecessary to understandhowglobaloutcomesareproduced (Barnett andDuvall 2005). Ingeneralterms,aneorealistviewpointisusefultohighlightresource-endowment asymmetries andhighlight strategies toovercome them.Neorealism is avery influ- ential strand in IRandseesstatesaspursuing their self-interest (which isultimately securityorwealth)inaninternationalsystemdefinedbyanarchy.Statespossessvary- ingcapabilities,orpower, that theyusetoturndeals intheirfavour.ThepowerStates possess depends on their resource endowment, including the economy, population, andmilitary forces.Nevertheless, aggregatemeasuresofpowermight explain little aboutpowerpositionswhenconsideringaspecificbargainingcircumstance(climate talks, in this case).What becomes relevant, instead, is “issue-specific power”; that is, theamountof relevant resourcesaPartycanuseforaspecificconflictorconcern (Habeeb1988). In amultilateral setting such as theUNFCCC, twomain resources acquireparticular relevanceandareconsidered forouranalysis:delegationsizeand capacity. Liberalism shares some assumptionswith realism (anarchy of the international system and rationality of actors), but rejects power as the sole explaining factor and stresses the role of international cooperation and mutual benefits in shaping international outcomes. In particular, liberalismpostulates that (i) it is the interde- pendence among state preferences to influenceworld politics [that promotes inter- national cooperation,] and that (ii) states’ preferences mirror the views of some subset of (domestic) social groups (Moravcsik 2008). Thefirst assumption derives from the special emphasis liberals place on globalisation as a characteristic of the international political-economic system. In an interconnectedworld, characterised