List of abbreviations ; Introduction: genetic resources and the internationalisation of the state ; 1. The regulation of nature in post-Fordism ; 1.1 Societal relationships with nature ; 1.2 The formation of a post-Fordist mode of regulation ; 1.3 The knowledge-based economy and "knowledge society" ; 1.4 Tendencies in the emergence of post-Fordist relationships with nature ; 1.5 The transformation of the state and the system of states 1.6 Questions of method 50 ; 2. On the value of nature: the Convention on Biological Diversity and the commercialisation of genetic resources ; 2.1 Biodiversity as a political concept ; 2.2 Functioning and provisions of the CBD ; 2.3 Positions of the most important actors ; 2.4 Problems and fields of conflict ; 2.5 The Bonn Guidelines on Access and Benefit-sharing ; 2.6 The emerging International Regime on Access and Benefit-sharing 96 2.7 Summary: the importance of the CBD in the international process ;3 Limits to commercialisation? Genetic resources in agriculture and the conflict over a multilateral exchange system ; 4 Politicising intellectual property rights: the conflicts around the TRIPS Agreement and the World Intellectual Property Organization ; 4.1 Shaping an international regime of intellectual property protection: evolution and contradictions of the TRIPS Agreement 137 4.2 Intellectual property rights and development: politicising the TRIPS Agreement ; 4.3 Scale jumping: towards national and bilateral solutions of the IPR issue? ; 4.4 Forum-shifting: imposing higher IPR standards through WIPO's Patent Agenda? ; 4.5 Politicising a "technical" terrain: conflicts about intellectual property, genetic resources and development in the WIPO ; 4.6 Contested terrains: summary and conclusions ; 5 The relevance of the national and the local: the disputes over a valorisation paradigm in Mexico and Chiapas ; 5.1 A megadiverse country in the process of transformation into a competition state ; 5.2 The formation of a Mexican biodiversity policy ; 5.3 Local conflicts over the valorisation paradigm in Chiapas ; 5.4 Summary ; 6. Contested terrains: towards a neo-Poulantzian approach to International Political Economy ; 6.1 The material dimensions of globalisation and the importance of the local ; 6.2 North-South relations and the reconfiguration of scale 220 6.3 International institutions as condensations of power relations ; 6.4 The question of democracy.

This book represents an important contribution to the study of global environmental politics and indeed international political economy. Understanding the global politics of access to and control over genetic resources through an historical materialist approach represents an innovative and welcome development."

Peter Newell, Professor of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, UK

'A compelling and insightful book on conflicts over genetics, intellectual property rights, and the future of agriculture. A must read for anyone concerned with the erosion of genetic diversity and how it has become a flash point for power struggles between the global North and South." Michael Goldman, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, USA. Author of Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization

'Contested terrains is one of the most insightful works on "environmental issues" that I have seen in recent years. The contributors foreground a nuanced view of power relations among states, corporations, NGOs and others, acting in a political economy that is not state-centric, on the one hand, yet not a "global society," on the other. As a result, we gain a much clearer understanding of the interplay between discursive and material resources and the way in which the "level playing field" is only level, at best, on average. This is a book that demands to be read. Now! Ronnie D. Lipschutz, Department of Politics, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

This is a path-breaking study advancing the conceptualization of global governance. The authors undertake the long overdue project of adapting the insights of state theory to new phenomena of international rule-making. This allows them to go beyond state-centric approaches in International Relations and make visible the interests of social forces in global environmental regulations... The result is a thoroughly satisfying book that should be required reading in all advanced courses on international organization and global governance."