Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
from the pure politics of maximization of interest. This view suggests that
regimes may matter but only under fairly restrictive conditions, for instance
when independent decision-making leads to unwanted outcomes. Finally,
the Grotian view lays emphasis on social factors, and even though it sees
the states as still the main actors in the international sphere, it assumes
that these actors are necessarily bound by specii c norms and rules. This
last orientation considers regimes as much more persistent and accepts
them as a fundamental part of all patterned human interaction, including
interaction in the international system (Krasner, 1983, pp. 6-10).
Nevertheless, the distinction between the above three orientations does
not really play an important role. Regimes cannot always be irrelevant,
and they cannot always be necessary. So the view that regimes may matter
under certain conditions, is the most appropriate. Their ef ectiveness is
of great importance, since only ef ective regimes may make a dif erence.
More details will be given below on the way that regime theory is applied
to the study of international environmental regimes when discussing how
regime theorists dei ne and measure environmental regime ef ectiveness.
Epistemic communities: a popular tradition within environmental inter-
national regime theory is that of 'epistemic communities' (Haas, 1989).
This theory highlights the role of knowledge-based 'epistemic communi-
ties' consisting of specialists responsible for articulating policies and iden-
tifying the national interest. Initially, the term 'epistemic community' was
used in literature on the sociology of knowledge. It was later borrowed by
international relations specialists and adapted to describe a specii c com-
munity of experts. This community 'shares a belief in a common set of
cause- and- ef ect relationships as well as common values to which policies
governing these relationships will be applied' (Haas, 1989, p.384). The
community, even though originating from various disciplines, operates
within a common network where there is an exchange of ideas, concerns,
results and solutions, aiming at the same political objectives (Haas,
1990, p. 55). This approach focuses on the groups of people who initiate
cooperation rather than on which states are the leading actors who start
the process. However, supporters of this theory do not suggest it should
replace the older international relations theories, but rather complement
them. For instance, as will be described below, Haas (1990) in his study
about the Mediterranean Action Plan explains the cooperation by refer-
ring to 'epistemic communities', but he also of ers other explanations from
the perspectives of realism/neorealism and historical materialism.
Dei ning and measuring regime ef ectiveness
Within regime theory there have been many ef orts from researchers to
rigorously study international environmental regimes and try to identify
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