"Pathways of Cooperation: Integrated and Un-integrated International Environmental Governance" (Chapter Outline)
Under what conditions do governments form international environmental cooperation consisting of integrated rules and institutions? Under what conditions do they form environmental cooperation consisting of un-integrated rules and institutions? I argue that governments form integrated cooperation when their preferences over cooperation converge. They form un-integrated cooperation when their preferences diverge. National preferences converge under one of two conditions: (i) when states share symmetrical interdependence structures in managing a natural resource or (ii) when non-state actors (“stakeholders”) whose economic activities contribute to the environmental problem are economically concentrated. Otherwise, national preferences over environmental cooperation diverge. I evaluate the importance of stakeholder concentrations by studying patterns of cooperation on global environmental issues such as climate change, ozone layer depletion, biodiversity, and mercury pollution. I evaluate the importance of interdependence structures by studying patterns of cooperation on international rivers, lakes, and seas. The analysis employs original quantitative and qualitative data stemming from agreement texts, field surveys, primary-source interviews, field observations, primary texts, and other sources. Governments create integrated global environmental cooperation when stakeholders contributing to the environmental problem are economically concentrated. They create un-integrated cooperation when stakeholders are economically diffuse. On transboundary water bodies, governments form integrated cooperation when states share symmetrical access to the water. They form un-integrated cooperation when states have asymmetrical access to the water. Neither the number of states with control over an environmental resource nor the wealth and geopolitical relations among states better explain patterns of cooperation on global environmental issues or regional water bodies.
Committee: Robert O. Keohane (chair), Christina L. Davis, Helen V. Milner