How control of nature shaped the international order

Posted recently to International Law Reporter, a nomination by Gail Lythgoe for the most interesting, important, or influential article or book published in 2022:

Joanne Yao, The Ideal River: How Control of Nature Shaped the International Order (Manchester Univ. Press 2022)

This book explores the geographical imaginaries of three rivers (the Rhine, Danube, and Congo) and how these very imaginaries shaped the constitutions, structure, and life of three early international organizations. It is a marvellous tale of how (and why) experts sought to tame nature and also says much about law’s relationship to the physical geography. I always really recommend and admire it because of how well written and engaging it is.

From the publisher's website:

The ideal river examines nineteenth-century efforts to establish international commissions on three transboundary rivers - the Rhine, the Danube, and the Congo. It charts how the Enlightenment ambition to tame the natural world, and human nature itself, became an international standard for rational and civilized authority and informed our geographical imagination of the international. This relationship of domination over nature shaped three core International Relations concepts central to the emergence of early international order: the territorial sovereign state; imperial hierarchies; and international organizations. The book contributes to environmental politics and international relations by highlighting how the relationship between society and nature is not a peripheral concern, but one at the heart of international politics.