Hopgood, Stephen

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Hopgood, Stephen

PERSONAL:

Education: University of Bristol, B.Sc.; Oxford University, D.Phil.

ADDRESSES:

Office—London, England. E-mail—sh18@soas.ac.uk.

CAREER:

University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, England, lecturer in international politics.

WRITINGS:

American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Keepers of the Flame: Understanding Amnesty International, Cornell University Press (Ithaca, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including U.S. Hegemony and International Organizations, edited by Rosemary Foot, Neil MacFarlane, and Michael Mastanduno, Oxford University Press, 2003; and Making Sense of Suicide Missions, edited by Diego Gambetta, Oxford University Press, 2005. Contributor to academic journals, including Millennium: Journal of International Studies.

SIDELIGHTS:

Stephen Hopgood is a political scientist and academic whose main areas of research include international relations theory, twentieth-century international politics, theories of the state, and the international politics of human rights. His first book, American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State, grew out of his doctoral thesis. It addresses the position of the state in international politics, and the necessity of international discussion concerning environmental and social policies on a global scale. In particular, Hopgood focuses on the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in 1972, and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, twenty years later. Writing for the Political Science Quarterly, Samuel J. Barkin commented that "the ideas underlying this argument are intriguing and make the book conceptually interesting. The execution of the argument, however, is problematic, both in the development of the theory and in the research design." In the American Political Science Review Lynton Keith Caldwell remarked: "Despite the detail-burdened text and some avoidable errors, the book has an informative value for anyone interested in the two UN environmental conferences. It identifies source material upon which other investigators may draw. It is not a history of the conferences but is a significant contribution concerning the role of the United States."

In his next offering, Keepers of the Flame: Understanding Amnesty International, Hopgood addresses human rights issues from a different angle. He looks at an international organization operating outside the politics of individual nations for the better treatment of people around the world. Hopgood spent a year conducting in-depth interviews and investigating the organization, from its history to the present day, and offers readers a detailed view of Amnesty International. Marcia L. Sprules, reviewing the book for Library Journal, noted that the resulting "well-executed work takes an anthropological approach to studying this organization."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, September 1, 2000, Lynton Keith Caldwell, review of American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State, p. 767.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, January 1, 1999, review of American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State, p. 966; December 1, 2006, N.N. Haanstad, review of Keepers of the Flame: Understanding Amnesty International, p. 716.

Chronicle of Higher Education, June 23, 2006, review of Keepers of the Flame.

Environment, September 1, 1999, review of American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State, p. 30.

Human Rights Quarterly, November 1, 2006, Morton Winston, review of Keepers of the Flame, p. 1079.

International Affairs, January 1, 1999, John Vogler, review of American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State, p. 194.

Journal of American Studies, April 1, 1999, Nicholas C. Flemming, review of American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State, p. 89.

Library Journal, April 1, 2006, Marcia L. Sprules, review of Keepers of the Flame, p. 111.

Political Science Quarterly, fall, 1999, Samuel J. Barkin, review of American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State.

Prairie Schooner, fall, 1999, review of American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State.

Times Higher Education Supplement, June 5, 1998, Fred Pearce, review of American Foreign Environmental Policy and the Power of the State, p. 24.