This book developed with the support of a number of people across different places. It was initially shaped by my experience working in the United Nations Development Programme and later with the World Bank. I am grateful to the many colleagues in both international organizations (IOs), with whom I continue to share long conversations on the rewards and frustrations of the work of IOs. Many people who become international civil servants do so because they believe in grand possibilities for the future. They join IOs because they share a vision of a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient world. Throughout many years of working in developing countries and in New York and Washington, DC, I witnessed the kind of transformative contributions the UN and the World Bank make at local, regional, and global scales. I also experienced many setbacks—some because the work of multilateral development agencies is incredibly complex and dynamic, but others were the product of internal constraints resulting from the way these institutions are organized and function.
In the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, I set out to translate that insight and experience into an academic research project. In this effort, I am foremost thankful for the advice and unwavering support I received from Steven Bernstein and Matthew Hoffmann. You provided the ongoing intellectual feedback that helped me develop my ideas and continue to be the most generous colleagues I could hope for in the Environmental Governance Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. I am also grateful to Louis Pauly for encouraging me to share my experience with IOs, Loren Cass for reading a very early synopsis and being so encouraging, Benedicte Bull for helpful suggestions on part of this project, and Ken Conca and Richard Stren for a careful reading of a first draft of the manuscript and for thoughtful comments. I am also grateful to Patricia Greve, Sebastian Baglioni, Rebecca Sanders, Bessma Momani, Lilach Gilady, Susan Solomon, Emmanuel Adler, Christopher Gore, and Susan Park for many insightful conversations.
Institutions matter, and I have benefited from helpful feedback from conference and workshop participants, discussants, and fellow panelists at meetings of the Northeastern Political Science Association, the International Studies Association, the Earth System Governance, the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, the Institute on Globalization and the Human Condition at McMaster University, and the Center for Environment and Development at the University of Oslo, where I presented parts of this work. Sharing early drafts with colleagues in these academic fora helped me crystallize arguments that have found their way into these pages. Any shortcomings that remain in the final product are, of course, my own. Though I cannot name you all, I am thankful for your reactions, connections, and spirit of collaboration that brought us together.
The final arc of this project was made possible by working with a great team at the MIT Press. I am grateful to Beth Clevenger, Oran Young, Frank Biermann, and Anthony Zannino for their support throughout, and to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which improved the clarity and quality of the book. For stellar research assistance, I am indebted to Jordan Imahori. Thank you also to the Carlos III-Juan March Institute of Social Sciences and its Director Ignacio Sanchez-Cuenca, for providing an engaged academic community and space to complete this project as a visiting scholar.
Most important, I thank my family. This book exists because I enjoy the support and encouragement of one of the most tenacious people I know, my partner, John Huegel. My father, Pascual, my brother, Alejo, my sister, Karen, and my three children, Mateo, Tiago, and Tess each helped me in their own way to tackle my research and writing. I hope my children will take from this shared experience the outlook my mother passed on to me: nurture your curiosity and participate critically and passionately in the world you live in. It is thanks to my mother, Maria Elina, and grandmother, Azucena, both deeply engaged scholars, that I am the person I continue to become. I wish you were here today to share some of the fruits of all that you sowed.