McKenzie Johnson graduated from Vassar College with an AB in Environmental Studies and received an MA in Conservation Biology from Columbia University. From 2007-2010, McKenzie worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society in Afghanistan to assist the Government of Afghanistan in developing conservation policy. McKenzie began her Ph.D. in Environmental Policy at Duke in 2011. Her research focuses on the relationship between environmental governance and peacebuilding. Her dissertation research examines the extent to which global environmental governance initiatives have (re)shaped the domestic politics of mineral extraction in Ghana and Sierra Leone. McKenzie aims to better understand how improved environmental governance – especially institutional change – impacts possibilities for conflict management and/or peacebuilding. She recently completed fieldwork in Ghana and Sierra Leone, and her research has been supported by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, a USIP Peace Scholar Fellowship, and a World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship from the Smith Richardson Foundation. Supervisors: Erika Weinthal, Jack Knight, Margaret McKean, Jeff Vincent, and Elizabeth Shapiro-Garza Address: Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University Duke Environment Hall 9 Circuit Drive Durham, NC 27708
This article examines the development of Afghanistan’s Environment Law to explore the politics of... more This article examines the development of Afghanistan’s Environment Law to explore the politics of institutional change in a conflict-affected context. Environment was catapulted to prominence in 2002 when it was included in the agenda for reconstruction under the new transitional government. Subsequent efforts to reconstitute Afghanistan’s environmental institutions culminated in the Environment Law written by the United Nations Environment Programme and other international actors, with input from the Government of Afghanistan. The Environment Law was crafted as a model of best practice, intended to modernize Afghanistan’s legislative foundation. However, it experienced significant content drift during the ratification process. As a result, the Environment Law produced institutions that differed in important ways from those initially proposed. Capitalizing on changes made during ratification, I analyze how actors across governance scales interact to translate development models from international to domestic policy spaces. I draw on both structure- and agent-oriented explanations to argue that changes to the Environment Law reflect attempts to increase structural complementarity between global and local systems of governance and cross-scalar contests over authority in the post/conflict landscape. The data suggest that interactions between domestic and international domains provided an opportunity to challenge institutional meaning and content. Ultimately, exploring how global models are incorporated within local contexts provides explanatory power for understanding institutional development. This is important in conflict studies, where the expansion of security theory to include issues like environment has provided new opportunities for strategic intervention by international actors in managing global conflict and its aftermath.
Background/Question/Methods It is often said that higher education needs to get out of the ivory ... more Background/Question/Methods It is often said that higher education needs to get out of the ivory tower and deal more directly with the “real world.” We present two projects that harnessed student intellect and energy to address real problems, and further their education at the same time. One concerned a domestic issue, the other was international. Results/Conclusions Our domestic project concerned invasive species. We taught a year-long Environmental Studies course in 2002-03. We spent fall semester studying the problems of invasive species, with the goal of developing projects to address the problems during spring semester. The most ambitious of the projects was legislative: with assistance from local NGOs and a Legislator, we combined elements from the laws of other states into a comprehensive bill establishing the Virginia Invasive Species Council, and mandating the creation of a comprehensive plan for surveying and dealing with invasive species in Virginia. The students wrote Op...
Planning for protected area networks is often done on an ad hoc basis, especially in data-poor co... more Planning for protected area networks is often done on an ad hoc basis, especially in data-poor countries. Afghanistan, a country mired in conflict for the past.
... HE Kretser (&) North America Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, 7 Br... more ... HE Kretser (&) North America Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, 7 Brandy Brook Ave, Saranac Lake, NY 12983, USA e-mail: hkretser@wcs.org MF Johnson Afghanistan Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Kabul, Afghanistan e-mail: mckenzie.johnson@duke.edu ...
This article examines the development of Afghanistan’s Environment Law to explore the politics of... more This article examines the development of Afghanistan’s Environment Law to explore the politics of institutional change in a conflict-affected context. Environment was catapulted to prominence in 2002 when it was included in the agenda for reconstruction under the new transitional government. Subsequent efforts to reconstitute Afghanistan’s environmental institutions culminated in the Environment Law written by the United Nations Environment Programme and other international actors, with input from the Government of Afghanistan. The Environment Law was crafted as a model of best practice, intended to modernize Afghanistan’s legislative foundation. However, it experienced significant content drift during the ratification process. As a result, the Environment Law produced institutions that differed in important ways from those initially proposed. Capitalizing on changes made during ratification, I analyze how actors across governance scales interact to translate development models from international to domestic policy spaces. I draw on both structure- and agent-oriented explanations to argue that changes to the Environment Law reflect attempts to increase structural complementarity between global and local systems of governance and cross-scalar contests over authority in the post/conflict landscape. The data suggest that interactions between domestic and international domains provided an opportunity to challenge institutional meaning and content. Ultimately, exploring how global models are incorporated within local contexts provides explanatory power for understanding institutional development. This is important in conflict studies, where the expansion of security theory to include issues like environment has provided new opportunities for strategic intervention by international actors in managing global conflict and its aftermath.
Background/Question/Methods It is often said that higher education needs to get out of the ivory ... more Background/Question/Methods It is often said that higher education needs to get out of the ivory tower and deal more directly with the “real world.” We present two projects that harnessed student intellect and energy to address real problems, and further their education at the same time. One concerned a domestic issue, the other was international. Results/Conclusions Our domestic project concerned invasive species. We taught a year-long Environmental Studies course in 2002-03. We spent fall semester studying the problems of invasive species, with the goal of developing projects to address the problems during spring semester. The most ambitious of the projects was legislative: with assistance from local NGOs and a Legislator, we combined elements from the laws of other states into a comprehensive bill establishing the Virginia Invasive Species Council, and mandating the creation of a comprehensive plan for surveying and dealing with invasive species in Virginia. The students wrote Op...
Planning for protected area networks is often done on an ad hoc basis, especially in data-poor co... more Planning for protected area networks is often done on an ad hoc basis, especially in data-poor countries. Afghanistan, a country mired in conflict for the past.
... HE Kretser (&) North America Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, 7 Br... more ... HE Kretser (&) North America Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, 7 Brandy Brook Ave, Saranac Lake, NY 12983, USA e-mail: hkretser@wcs.org MF Johnson Afghanistan Program, Wildlife Conservation Society, Kabul, Afghanistan e-mail: mckenzie.johnson@duke.edu ...
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