David and I are very partial to having a good rant about the pernicious influence of the single-issue ‘priesthoods’ that, as we put it in Confronting the Long Crisis of Globalisation, “cluster around critical multilateral processes, controlling the way ‘their’ issues are framed and imposing their language and culture”.
If you’re wondering what that looks like in practice, here’s a delicious example from the world of multilateral climate policy, courtesy of Tan Copsey over at China Dialogue:
This morning I received an email inviting me to an event at the Tianjin climate conference:
IGES AWG-KP14/AWG-LCA12 Side event on MRV in NAMAs and the CDM.
The UNFCCC has been criticised for being an “exclusive priesthood” that speaks in a language completely incomprehensible to the public. I wonder why.
For the record it means: Institute for Global Environmental Strategies Ad-Hoc Working Group Kyoto Protocol/ Ad-Hoc Working Group Long-term Cooperative Action Side event on Measurable, Reportable and Verifiable greenhouse gas emissions reductions in Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions and the Clean Development Mechanism.
And what does that mean? Well…
Priceless. Other examples always welcome.
