In two provocative new books, Elizabeth DeSombre andMatthew Paterson attack two issues that call into questioncommon assumptions about international environmental pol-itics (IEP). Paterson asks: Does our global environmentalpredicament reflect unfortunate, but essentially unrelated,secular trends or the influence of deeper, structural forces?DeSombre asks: Does resolution of environmental problems,whatever their sources, require broad support among manycountries, or can solutions arise from unilateral action by asingle powerful state? Paterson's answer involves a refreshingcritique of the IEP literature that shows how traditionalrealist and liberal approaches systematically ignore the un-derlying causes of global environmental change. DeSombreprovides a trenchant analysis of when, how, and why acountry will attempt, and succeed at, internalization of itsown domestic environmental regulations. Both books makesignificant contributions to the growing IEP literature, ex-tending it to important new areas of research.