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Overlap Management in the World Trade Organization: Secretariat Influence on Trade-Environment Politics
Abstract
This article builds on recent scholarship that explores the nature of secretariat influence in global governance. By combining data from interviews with WTO delegates and secretariat staff with document analysis, this study examines how the WTO secretariat is shaping trade-environment politics by using its bureaucratic authority to influence overlap management in the WTO. This study argues that secretariat influence is present, but varies in form across cases. It shows up in the forms noted by previous scholars in their examinations of UNEP secretariats (i.e. negotiation-facilitation, capacity building, and knowledge-brokering), but also in previously un-discussed forms of influence such as marketing convention norms, and litigation facilitation. It further argues that secretariat influence matters in that the WTO secretariat plays an important role in shaping the way trade-environment issues evolve within the WTO, shaping its own identity as a hybrid administrative-judicial organ, as well as in enhancing WTO legitimacy with the broader public. (c) 2010 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
... NAFTA has focused on the enforcement of national regulations while the European Union relies more on policy coherence and cooperation between the trade partners. NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability policies by taking into consideration that country members defer their authority based on expertise, social network and institutional memory (Jinnah, 2010). NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability politics by legitimizing the strategic marketing practices and technical knowledge brokerage and attempting to level the development between countries (Jinnah, 2010). ...
... NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability policies by taking into consideration that country members defer their authority based on expertise, social network and institutional memory (Jinnah, 2010). NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability politics by legitimizing the strategic marketing practices and technical knowledge brokerage and attempting to level the development between countries (Jinnah, 2010). ...
... The marketing approach to the interaction between trade and environmentally sustainable development is subject to the expertise and social networks involved (Jinnah, 2010). Marketing organizational rules and norms in NAFTA to frame, design and shape access to memberships of NGOs is an important activity to spread understanding of the implications between trade and environmental sustainability (Jinnah, 2010). ...
... NAFTA has focused on the enforcement of national regulations while the European Union relies more on policy coherence and cooperation between the trade partners. NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability policies by taking into consideration that country members defer their authority based on expertise, social network and institutional memory (Jinnah, 2010). NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability politics by legitimizing the strategic marketing practices and technical knowledge brokerage and attempting to level the development between countries (Jinnah, 2010). ...
... NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability policies by taking into consideration that country members defer their authority based on expertise, social network and institutional memory (Jinnah, 2010). NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability politics by legitimizing the strategic marketing practices and technical knowledge brokerage and attempting to level the development between countries (Jinnah, 2010). ...
... The marketing approach to the interaction between trade and environmentally sustainable development is subject to the expertise and social networks involved (Jinnah, 2010). Marketing organizational rules and norms in NAFTA to frame, design and shape access to memberships of NGOs is an important activity to spread understanding of the implications between trade and environmental sustainability (Jinnah, 2010). ...
... NAFTA has focused on the enforcement of national regulations while the European Union relies more on policy coherence and cooperation between the trade partners. NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability policies by taking into consideration that country members defer their authority based on expertise, social network and institutional memory (Jinnah, 2010). NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability politics by legitimizing the strategic marketing practices and technical knowledge brokerage and attempting to level the development between countries (Jinnah, 2010). ...
... NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability policies by taking into consideration that country members defer their authority based on expertise, social network and institutional memory (Jinnah, 2010). NAFTA institutions influence trade and environmental sustainability politics by legitimizing the strategic marketing practices and technical knowledge brokerage and attempting to level the development between countries (Jinnah, 2010). ...
... The marketing approach to the interaction between trade and environmentally sustainable development is subject to the expertise and social networks involved (Jinnah, 2010). Marketing organizational rules and norms in NAFTA to frame, design and shape access to memberships of NGOs is an important activity to spread understanding of the implications between trade and environmental sustainability (Jinnah, 2010). ...
This paper summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the issue of
institutional capital and its implications on trade and environmentally sustainable development under NAFTA
(North America Free Trade Agreement). The main purpose of the research is conducting a critical analysis the
implications in terms of the relationship between cooperation, conflict and institutional capital, as well as their
interactions with trade–marketing and environmentally sustainable development policy making under the
framework of NAFTA. Systematization literary sources and approaches for solving the problem of whether
the North American Free Trade Agreement should continue to operate despite the challenges and the institu�tional capital capacity built by the country members indicates that the renegotiation process should incorporate
the institutional capital already developed. The relevance of the decision of this scientific problem is that cre�ated institutional capital has critical effects on trade, marketing and environmentally sustainable development.
Investigation of the topic in the paper is carried out in the following logical sequence based on literature review
aimed to create a relationship between the analytical variables in order to obtain a research construct. Meth�odological tools of the research methods were reviewing 24 years of research on the implementation of
NAFTA. The object of research is the chosen countries, of United States, Canada and Mexico, because namely
they have created the NAFTA The paper presents the results of an empirical analysis of the implications in
terms of cooperation and conflict relationships as institutional capital and their interactions with trade-market�ing and environmentally sustainable development policy making which showed that the research model pro�posed and used to analyze is useful as a research construct. The research empirically confirms and theoretically
proves that although the existence of NAFTA is severely questioned, its institutional capital has positive effects
on the implications of trade-marketing, however, environmentally sustainable development proves to be con�flictive and highly contentious, although some positive effects are developing. The results of the research can
be useful for the renegotiations processes of individual firms, industries, economic sectors and countries under
NAFTA.
... Through extensive case-study research, we have gained a better understanding of the influence international bureaucracies have, particularly within the UN. In this context, international bureaucracies have proven adept in rallying member states under their dedicated framework conventions (Hickmann et al., 2019;Jörgens et al., 2017;Michaelowa & Michaelowa, 2013), or have engaged in interplay management to address areas of overlapping jurisdictions, such as biodiversity and trade (Jinnah, 2010(Jinnah, , 2014Jinnah & Lindsay, 2015). ...
... Institutional interplay generally pertains to situations in which the performance and/or development of one institution is affected by another institution (Oberthür & Stokke, 2011;Söderström & Kern, 2017). As a particular form of institutional intelay, joint interplay or overlap management describes the deliberate efforts of two or more actors to improve the interactions between at least two institutions that are independent in terms of membership and decision-making processes, yet share political and/or functional interdependencies as they address the same issue area (Jinnah, 2010;Oberthür, 2009;Stokke, 2020). Research on such interplay management investigates the effectiveness of joint interventions as a policy response to jurisdictional overlap to harness synergies among interacting institutions. ...
Research on international bureaucracies, such as treaty secretariats, has predominantly focused on broadening our understanding of their role, function, and influence within their respective regulatory domains. However, the potential for treaty secretariats to manage situations of institutional overlap by coordinating with other agencies across policy areas has remained understudied. This article offers new empirical and theoretical insights for studying collective agency and coordination mechanisms in instances of institutional interaction within hybrid regime complexes. Specifically, it investigates how the treaty secretariats of the Rio Conventions under the United Nations employ joint interplay management as a means to improve institutional coherence within the climate change, biodiversity loss, and desertification nexus. Collectively, the public agencies aim to advance knowledge and discourse, influence norm-building processes and regulation, or build capacity and support the joint implementation of policy objectives addressing the interlinked environmental problems. They do this by interacting with various actors across governance levels, including national governments, transnational initiatives, private actors, or civil society. By tracing the process linking joint activities with effects of such interactions, this qualitative case study makes a conceptual contribution by extrapolating a mechanistic theory for joint interplay management. The article demonstrates that treaty secretariats have to contend with challenges of resource allocation, diverging mandates, leadership priorities, and the degree of politicization and timing which frequently intervene stages of strategizing and executing joint activities. The results highlight that joint interplay management can be most impactful when secretariats employ orchestration practices through joint outreach and advocacy to advance coherent institutional responses to interdependent environmental problems.
... Institutional interplay broadly refers to situations in which the operation, performance, and/ or development of one institution is affected by another institution (Jinnah, 2010;Oberthür & Stokke, 2011). As noted above, scholars have studied institutional interplay using various terms and concepts, such as 'interlinkages, ' 'institutional interaction,' 'orchestration,' 'overlap,' or 'fragmentation' and 'complexity.' ...
... Another emerging stream of research has focused on ways in which international bureaucracies, such as intergovernmental treaty secretariats, play an important role in managing regime overlap across intergovernmental and transnational institutions, thereby influencing political outcomes (Biermann & Siebenhüner, 2009;Hoch et al., 2019;Jinnah, 2010Jinnah, , 2014Jinnah & Lindsay, 2015;Skovgaard, 2017). In this context, studies have demonstrated that intergovernmental treaty secretariats can orchestrate, mobilize, and catalyze transnational initiatives to rally for more impactful intergovernmental policy-making and forge new alliances between public and private institutions to accelerate the transformation toward sustainable development (e.g., Hickmann & Elsässer, 2020;Hickmann et al., 2019). ...
Over the past decades, the growing proliferation of international institutions governing the global environment has impelled institutional interplay as a result of functional and norma-tive overlap across multiple regimes. This article synthesizes primary contributions made in research on institutional interplay over the past twenty years, with particular focus on publications with International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics. Broadening our understanding about the different types, dimensions, pathways, and effects of institutional interplay, scholars have produced key insights into the ways and means by which international institutions cooperate, manage discord, engage in problem solving, and capture synergies across levels and scales. As global environmental governance has become increasingly fragmented and complex, we recognize that recent studies have highlighted the growing interactions between transnationally operating institutions in the wake of polycentric governance and hybrid institutional complexes. However, our findings reveal that there is insufficient empirical and conceptual research to fully understand the relationship , causes, and consequences of interplay between intergovernmental and transnational institutions. Reflecting on the challenges of addressing regulatory gaps and mitigating the crisis of multilateralism, we expound the present research frontier for further advancing research on institutional interplay and provide recommendations to support policy-making.
... This neglect of IPAs has become more problematic, however, as they have begun to play an even larger and more visible role in domestic and international policy-making Busch 2014 ;Dingwerth, Kerwer, and Nölke 2009 ;. In addition, international bureaucratic elites have become a focus of IRs scholars and students of the European Union (Hooghe and Marks 2001 ;Kassim et al. 2013 ;Xu and Weller 2004 ), who highlight phenomena as diverse as bureaucrats' role in indirect and soft forms of governance , organizational change (Barnett and Coleman 2005 ), the design of offshoot organizations , the management of regime overlap (Jinnah 2010 ), and the solidifi cation of supranationalism (Posner 2009 ). The growing size and competences of international bureaucratic bodies thus beg the obvious question of to what extent a PA perspective on IOs could add descriptive, analytical, or theoretical insights. ...
... This constellation may limit administrative infl uence because international secretariats' proposals are rarely backed by a previously established legislative majority. However, it has been shown that international secretariats may exert more informal infl uence by acting as a broker Jinnah 2010 ) who uses persuasive strategies to facilitate agreement among states (Ecker-Ehrhardt 2012 ; see also the chapters of Saerbeck et al. and Benz et al.). Overall, international legislation 'must inevitably remain vague and leave wide scope for administrative interpretation', which, in the end 'contributes to increase the real importance of the secretariat' (Langrod 1963 , 47; see also Liese and Weinlich 2006 , 497). ...
... That treaty secretariats do not merely fill an administrative function within given power structures, but that they possess agency and autonomy in their own right (at least partially) to influence and even shape state preferences, has been a revelation in the field and opened new possibilities for enhancing the efficacy of global governance (e.g. Jinnah, 2010;Michaelowa and Michaelowa, 2017). Analysts have usefully identified and debated the sources of authority for treaty secretariats as well as the mechanisms and types of influence often observed, despite the admission that they nevertheless operate under a veil of neutrality and member state delegation (Depledge, 2007;Biermann and Siebenhüner, 2009). ...
... Particularly, J€ orgens et al. (2016, p. 982) notes that attempts at directly understanding hidden preferences through statements and observed behaviour from staff and documentation can be biased in one of two opposing directions e secretariat influence being either inflated or discounted. While advocacy-oriented administrators may exaggerate the policy impacts the secretariat generates for reputational gains, others are likely to downplay its effect to preserve an image of impartiality on which their authority depends (see for example, Bauer, 2009;Busch, 2009;Jinnah, 2011;Conliffe, 2011). In fact, Jinnah (2014, p. 21) avers that "secretariats often go to great lengths to conceal any activities that reflect their own political preferences." ...
The influential role of international treaty secretariats in coordinating bureaucracies across jurisdictional boundaries has been highlighted in recent years. While we now better understand how their influence occurs, the field still faces a substantial difficulty in answering the basic quantitative question of "how influential?" By employing network analysis, we devised and tested a survey to quantify secretariat influence within an international environmental regime. We applied the survey tool to two trans-boundary fisheries governance networks in North America and here focus on the Great Lakes Fishery Commission (GLFC) as our primary case study. The results demonstrate a high ability of treaty secretariat to influence the management decisions of federal and state/provincial agencies. Primary interview data collected with the GLFC secretariat staff helps explain this finding. This study advances the recon-ceptualization of secretariat influence via relational metrics, and offers a way to estimate secretariat influence despite their typically veiled modes of operation.
... . Institutional capital is related to institutional cost (Chen, 2008 (North, 1995:13). The new institutional economics (NIE) supports the notions of social capital related to issues of trust (Raiser 1997 and1999;Raiser et al. 2001) (Marshall, 1963 Figure 1 shows the relationships between the three variables (Jinnah, 2010). ...
... Marketing organizational rules and norms in NAFTA to frame, design and shape access to memberships of NGOs is an important activity to spread understanding of the implications between trade and environmental sustainability (Jinnah, 2010). ...
The aim of this study is to critically analyze the implications in terms of the relationship between cooperation and conflict and institutional capital, as well as their interactions with trade–marketing and environmentally sustainable development policy making under the framework of NAFTA. The critical analysis stems from the question of whether the North American Free Trade Agreement should continue to operate despite the challenges and the institutional capital capacity built by the country members. The methodology is based on literature review aimed to create a relationship between the analytical variables in order to obtain a research construct. This research model is used to critically analyze the implications in terms of cooperation and conflict relationships as institutional capital and their interactions with trade-marketing and environmentally sustainable development policy making. It is concluded that, although the existence of NAFTA is severely questioned, its institutional capital has positive effects on the implications of trade-marketing, however, environmentally sustainable development proves to be conflictive and highly contentious, although some positive effects are developing.
... For IPAs, so the argument goes, the preferred outcome is just the achievement of any cooperative arrangement that member states could not have been able to realize alone. From this perspective, an IPA is expected to assume the role of an impartial broker and facilitator that supports negotiations, aims to increase the win-set, and persuades skeptical decision makers to reach an agreement (see e.g., Jinnah 2011;Johnstone 2011;Saz-Carranza 2015). Behind this conception lies the assumption that an IPA benefits in organizational terms (for example via increased resources and competences) from intensifying international cooperation per se. ...
... For scholars of (world) politics, influence on political decisions is of paramount relevance-not least because these decisions have important repercussions on the people living within the jurisdictions of the institutions under study. While some influence studies take an outspokenly procedural perspective (Jinnah 2010), scholars interested in IPA influence could be generally more explicit in their conceptualizations of the subject matter of influence. In order to help bring together the currently fragmented findings, our proposal is to concentrate specifically on influence over particular decisions. ...
An impressive amount of evidence has been collected underpinning the importance of international public administrations (i.e., the secretariats of international govern ental organizations) in a variety of policy areas, actor configurations, and multilevel political contexts. However, the problem of how to systematically observe and explain bureaucratic influence still lies at the core of the research puzzles that scholars presently attempt to solve. While acknowledging the achievements of recent research efforts, we argue that it is no coincidence that the results remain rather scattered and disconnected—as no consensus has been reached about how bureaucratic influence beyond nation states might be reasonably defined or reliablyobserved and how the individual insights gained could feed intothe construction of a more general theory of bureaucratic influence in transnational governance. Based on a review of the literature, the essay describes what we see as the characteristic pitfalls of current research and presents two modest proposals on how the underlying challenges can be addressed. We first suggest defining the target of influence in terms of a particular policy and second advocate the inclusion of bureaucratic policy preferences into the influence concept. In order to help researchers to observe and compare policy influence across IPAs, we present a simple heuristic measurement scheme, which, if systematically applied, may help overcome the central ailment of recent influence studies. We demonstrate the applicability of the scheme by means of two empirical illustrations. The argument is that in the absence of a comprehensive descriptive, let alone analytical, theory of bureaucratic influence in transnational policymaking, our proposal may help to boost the accumulative potential of current research in the area.
... Yet studies on the bureaucratic autonomy of international organisations have suggested that the WTO Secretariat may indeed exercise some level of autonomy (Bauer & Ege, 2016;Jinnah, 2010;Trondal, 2016). This may particularly be true when the actions are consistent with the values embedded in the organisational culture and the ideology guiding the organisation's objectives, which in WTO is dominated by neoliberal free trade theory (Chorev & Babb, 2009;Lera St Clair, 2004). ...
... Our study indicates support among leaders in the WTO Secretariat for considering international trade commitments in a broader policy context. While the WTO Secretariat has no formal influence over the decision-making processes of WTO's official bodies, it can through institutional memory, knowledge-brokering, networking with governments and NGOs, and its role as administrators of WTO processes (Jinnah, 2010;Nordström, 2005) frame the discourse on trade and health in WTO, and support efforts to resolve tensions between health norms and trade policy objectives. However, the Secretariat perceives a limited role for itself on these matters except for increasing cooperation with WHO. ...
This comparative case study investigated how two intergovernmental organisations without formal health mandates - the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) - have engaged with global health issues. Triangulating insights from key institutional documents, ten semi-structured interviews with senior officials, and scholarly books tracing the history of both organisations, the study identified an evolving and broadened engagement with global health issues in UNDP and WTO. Within WTO, the dominant view was that enhancing international trade is instrumental to improving global health, although the need to resolve tensions between public health objectives and WTO agreements was recognised. For UNDP, interviewees reported that the agency gained prominence in global health for its response to HIV/AIDS in the 1990s and early 2000s. Learning from that experience, the agency has evolved and expanded its role in two respects: it has increasingly facilitated processes to provide global normative direction for global health issues such as HIV/AIDS and access to medicines, and it has expanded its focus beyond HIV/AIDS. Overall, the study findings suggest the need for seeking greater integration among international institutions, closing key global institutional gaps, and establishing a shared global institutional space for promoting action on the broader determinants of health.
... The WTO's broad authority over several economic sectors and regulation at, and beyond, the border makes it a "linkage machine" ( Alvarez 2002 ). Indeed, the WTO's expansive authority has given rise to multiple regime complexes, including those at the intersection of trade and intellectual property rights ( Helfer 2009 ); trade and genetic resources ( Raustalia and Victor 2004 ); trade and environment ( Jinnah 2010 ); and most relevant for this essay, trade and food security. ...
Scholars and pundits focusing on the changing international order and its possible fragmentation often pay little attention to the manifold relationships between international organizations (IOs). Neglecting inter-organizational relationships, we argue, biases discussions towards doomsday predictions and reinforces the perception of global fragmentation. In this Forum, we address these biases by bringing together two strands of IR scholarship: power rivalry/transition and regime complexity. We do so by introducing the concept of organizational (dis)entanglements. An examination of how more and less powerful national and international policymakers engage and disengage IOs, highlights processes of reinforcing, muddling through, or undermining various ongoing order-making initiatives. The individual contributions examine organizational (dis)entanglements by highlighting actors’ various multilateral order-making attempts across IOs, global and regional ordering dynamics through IOs, and the roles international bureaucrats play in these processes. These contributions help identify new directions of inquiry in the study of IOs and international order by, for example, demonstrating that actors can engage with competition and cooperation simultaneously. Not all ordering attempts are equally likely to radically change global politics.
... Some are under the control of the UN, such as the UNFCCC secretariat, while others, like the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, are outside of the UN system totally. 46 In recent years, more focus has been placed on the duties and activities of treaty secretariats. 47 Long regarded as essentially functional organizations that manage Conferences of the Parties and handle paperwork relating to treaties, it is now evident that they frequently exercise significant power behind the scenes, albeit the exact nature of this power, or more precisely, influence, differs between environmental regimes. ...
Global environmental cooperation does not occur in a vacuum. It is initiated, encouraged, coordinated, strengthened and monitored by a series of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), with exclusive or partial environmental mandates. The environment as an issue for global governance organizations appeared on the international agenda in the late 1960s. Despite its relatively recent entry, the intersection between environment and development has gone on to become a central focus of global governance ever since, and IGOs have played a critical role in this process. This paper reviews the functions and operation of existing global and regional IGOs as they pertain to global environmental governance. It examines some of the more interesting lines of inquiry into their role in the international political system, both individually and as a collective whole, and how they have been applied in research on environmental IGOs to further our understanding of this set of actors. These include the extent to which IGOs are autonomous actors, how to assess their performance and impacts, how to manage links and overlap between them, and the emergence of regional IGOs, adding a new dimension to this field. Finally, this paper outlines possible future trajectories and reforms for this complex institutional terrain.
... Notwithstanding the decision-making powers of the Board, prior research indicates that the technical staff are an essential organizational resource for standard setting bodies and regulatory organizations, not only in the domain of accounting (Howieson, 2009;Jinnah, 2010;Kentikelenis & Seabrooke, 2017). With reference to the IASC and IASB, Camfferman and Zeff (2007; argue that the technical staff, and not the Board, do the ground work on standard setting projects including all the drafting of papers and standards, usually behind the scenes. ...
Paper conditionally accepted by the Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, scheduled for publication in the June 2025 issue
... International bureaucracies have been variously conceived; they orchestrate international regulation (Abbott and Snidal 2010) and play a critical role in the management of regime overlap (Jinnah 2010), as well as during the creation of new organizations (Johnson 2014). Moreover, these bodies have been studied as actors in transnational policy-makingin particular, in the areas of environmental policy (Biermann and Siebenhüner 2009), treaty reforms (Beach 2004) and management change (Bauer and Knill 2007). ...
... The focus of many scholars on global climate governance, however, does not mean that other areas of earth system governance have been neglected altogether. Several scholars have, for instance, examined the interlinkages between international environmental and economic institutions (e.g., Oberthür and Gehring 2006b;Jinnah 2010;Zelli and van Asselt 2010;Zelli, Gupta and van Asselt 2013;Jinnah 2014). In this area, scholars have focused on the relations between multilateral environmental agreements and the World Trade Organization. ...
Given the regulatory gap in earth system governance, numerous new governance initiatives, such as multilateral clubs, private certification schemes, and multi-stakeholder forums, have emerged to tackle transboundary environmental challenges. This plethora of different governance initiatives has led to a significant increase in the institutional complexity of global (environmental) policy-making and to more interlinkages between such institutions. Chapter 6 perceives dyadic institutional interlinkages as a key ‘microscopic’ structural feature of the overall global governance landscape and most basic ‘building blocks’ or ‘units of analysis’ in current scholarship on global governance architectures. After defining the term institutional interlinkages, we synthesize the literature on institutional interlinkages with a particular view on the expansion of interlinkages across different governance levels and scales. Against this backdrop, we examine to what extent the existing concepts and typologies of institutional interlinkages can capture the various new interlinkages between different kinds of institutions in earth system governance.
... A series of studies have substantiated these findings, suggesting that the role of environmental treaty secretariats may be shifting from rather passive servants of a treaty's negotiating parties to active and influence-seeking actors in their own right ( Jinnah 2010;Jinnah 2011;Michaelowa and Michaelowa 2016). ...
Despite the relevance of education-specific negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the influential role of the secretariat therein, research in this area is still scarce. We contribute to closing this research gap by exploring how the UNFCCC secretariat becomes involved in and has latent influence on the education-specific debates surrounding global climate conferences and the related information exchange on Twitter. Our analysis extends previous findings by combining theories and methods in novel ways. Specifically, we apply social-network theory and derive data from participant observations and Twitter, which enables us to analyze the role and influence of the UNFCCC treaty secretariat within education-specific negotiations. We find that the secretariat increases its influence by strategically establishing links to actors beyond the negotiating parties and show that it occupies a central and influential position within the education-specific communication networks in UNFCCC negotiations.
... A series of studies have substantiated these findings, suggesting that the role of environmental treaty secretariats may be shifting from rather passive servants of a treaty's negotiating parties to active and influence-seeking actors in their own right ( Jinnah 2010;Jinnah 2011;Michaelowa and Michaelowa 2016). ...
Despite the relevance of education-specific negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the increasingly influential role of the UNFCCC secretariat therein, research in this area is still scarce. In this article, we contribute to closing this research gap by exploring how the UNFCCC secretariat becomes involved in and has latent influence on the education-specific debates surrounding global climate conferences and the related information exchange on Twitter. Our analysis extends previous findings on the impact of environmental treaty secretariats by combining theories and methods in novel ways. Specifically, we apply Social Network Theory (SNT) and derive data from participant observations and Twitter, which enables us to analyze the particular role and influence of the UNFCCC treaty secretariat within education-specific negotiations. We find that the secretariat increases its influence by strategically establishing links to actors beyond the formal negotiation parties and thereby gathering support for its preferred policy outcomes. Furthermore, we show that the climate secretariat occupies a central and influential position within the education-specific communication networks in UNFCCC negotiations.
... This neglect of IPAs has become more problematic, however, as they have begun to play an even larger and more visible role in domestic and international policy-making (Barnett and Finnemore 2004;Biermann and Siebenhüner 2009;Busch 2014;Dingwerth, Kerwer, and Nölke 2009;Hooghe and Marks 2015). In addition, international bureaucratic elites have become a focus of IRs scholars and students of the European Union (Hooghe and Marks 2001;Kassim bureaucrats' role in indirect and soft forms of governance (Abbott 2015), shoot organizations (Johnson 2013), the management of regime overlap (Jinnah 2010), and the solidification of supranationalism (Posner 2009 Ness and Brechin 1988), and what role professionals and organizational dynamics play in the 'working' adminis-tional level and with regard to transnational constellations. Even where individual studies have emerged (e.g. ...
This is a book on international public administration (IPA). The introductory chapter sets the stage by defining international bureaucracy as an object of scientific inquiry. It is explained why it matters, what questions preceding studies on the phenomenon have been raised, and why there is a research gap both from the perspective of Public Administration (PA) and International Relations research. The chapter further introduces the contours of a PA perspective on international organizations as pursued by this book and briefly summarizes the central conceptual perspectives on IPAs as outlined by the volume’s contributions.
... This constellation may limit administrative influence because international secretariats' proposals are rarely backed by a previously established legislative majority. On the other hand, it has been shown that international secretariats may exert more informal influence by acting as a broker (Biermann and Siebenhüner 2009;Jinnah 2010) who uses persuasive strategies to facilitate agreement among states (Ecker-Ehrhardt 2012; see also the chapter of Saerbeck et al. and Benz et al.). Overall, international legislation ʻmust inevitably remain vague and leave wide scope for administrative interpretation', which, in the end ʻcontributes to increase the real importance of the secretariat' (Langrod 1963, 47; see also Liese and Weinlich 2006, 497). ...
This chapter explores how the concept of bureaucratic autonomy can be applied to the empirical study of international administrations. To this end, we start with an overview of classical Public Administration (PA) scholarship on bureaucratic autonomy. Based on what we consider the most relevant differences between the national and international spheres, we present a multidimensional concept of bureaucratic autonomy that is suitable for the analysis of international administrations. We then suggest a number of indicators that allow us to compare varying degrees of autonomy at different conceptual levels across administrations. Based on the data of 20 administrations, we illustrate possible causes and consequences of autonomy and lay out trajectories for future research.
... Chairpersons in turn play a role in ensuring that no single bloc or perspective dominates the deliberations (Stevenson and Dryzek 2014, 71-72). Finally, the bureaucratic staff attached to convention secretariats or international organizations like the WTO play a part in shaping how party positions and overall agreements develop (Jinnah 2010). ...
Over the past two decades, a growing body of literature has highlighted moral reasons for taking global democracy seriously. This literature justifies democracy on the grounds of its intrinsic value. But democracy also has instrumental value: the rule of the many is epistemically superior to the rule of one or the rule of the few. This paper draws on the tradition of epistemic democracy to develop an instrumentalist justification for democratizing global governance. The tradition of epistemic democracy is enjoying a renaissance within political theory and popular non-fiction, yet its relevance for international relations remains unexplored. I develop an epistemic-democratic framework for evaluating political institutions, which is constituted by three principles. The likelihood of making correct decisions within institutions of global governance will be greater when (1) human development and capacity for participation is maximised; (2) the internal cognitive diversity of global institutions is maximised; and (3) public opportunities for sharing objective and subjective knowledge are maximised. Applying this framework to global governance produces a better understanding of the nature and extent of the ‘democratic deficit’ of global governance, as well as the actions required to address this deficit.
This study investigates the role of technical staff within a global standard setting organization, the International
Accounting Standards Board (IASB). Building on publicly available documents, interviews with staff and Board
members, and observations of Board meetings, staff practices of standard setting are explored in light of their
impact on the standard setter’s decision-making. It is found that the technical staff have individual approaches to
their work on standard setting projects. They find themselves constrained by, but also shaping, the organizational
structures of the IASB. In the course of their project work they become specialist experts in both the project’s
technical issues as well as procedural processes. This makes the staff powerful agents within the realm of in-
ternational accounting standard setting, because their efforts influence how the IASB moves through its work
plan. It also explains why they may be a preferred target for lobbying activities and how they contribute to the
standard setter’s public reputation. Notably, staff practices are consistent over time and across projects. In
summary, it is suggested that the IASB’s technical staff are a critical resource of international accounting
standard setting.
The deepening dynamics of globalization and the evolving trade-investment patterns might affect the environmental scenario or climate change pattern in a country in a number of ways, which may not be linear in nature. A country may suffer from export myopia in the short run, embracing liberalization of the inward investment and production policies without adequate filtering mechanism, or adopting relatively less stringent environmental policies, leading to overexploitation of resources. While prevalence of trade-led environmental degradation in the initial phase of development has been noted, once the export volume increases, with a consequent rise in the income level, the population in a country may develop an affinity for a better environment. The UN SDGs require all the countries in the world to ensure responsible production and supply chain within their territories, fulfilling a series of commitments by 2030. During the Paris Climate Deal discussion, the participating countries have decided to undertake several reforms on this front, including the urgency of containing the rise in global temperature for mitigating the climate change related challenges. It is however anticipated that all the countries, particularly the low-income ones, may not be able to fulfill all their commitments by the stipulated deadline, which, in itself, may create significant cross-border trade, investment and cooperation opportunities.
A growing literature at the intersection of international relations, public policy, and comparative politics has explored the role that International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) play in influencing domestic policymaking. This literature is grounded in a commonly shared theoretical expectation that policymakers will perceive IGOs as neutral and technocratic purveyors of expert information. Based on this expectation, scholars have assumed that policymakers are likely to employ recommendations from IGOs when making decisions. In this research note, we examine this assumption through an analysis of original survey data on U.S. mayors’ responses to COVID-19-related guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO). In contrast to dominant theoretical expectations, we find that mayoral likelihood of considering WHO recommendations in policymaking and of trusting WHO-provided information was largely a function of ideology, an effect that remains after incorporating the interactive effect of Trump vote share.
The mushrooming of trade agreements and their interlinkages with environmental governance calls for new research on the trade and environment interface. The more than 700 existing preferential trade agreements (PTAs) include ever more diverse and far-reaching environmental provisions. While missed opportunities remain and harmful provisions persist, numerous environmental provisions in PTAs entail promising potential. They promote the implementation of environmental treaties and cover numerous environmental issues. New concepts, data, and methods, including detailed content analysis across multiple institutions, are needed to explain these interlinkages and understand whether and how PTAs with environmental provisions can contribute to tackling global environmental challenges. Making use of the most extensive coding of environmental provisions in PTAs to date and combining quantitative data with qualitative analyses, this Element provides a comprehensive yet fine-grained picture of the drivers and effects of environmental provisions in PTAs. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a steep rise in demand for COVID-recovery lending and a decrease in capacity for infrastructure borrowing in many countries struggling to cope with its economic effects. This has presented a significant challenge to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as its project pipelines had been developed mainly for traditional infrastructure lending. This paper examines the strategies employed by the AIIB to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings showcase how its institutional leadership effectively employed its authority, resources, and leadership competences to push for an adaptive response strategy. This was achieved by pitching a response based on the expansion of the AIIB’s operational scope beyond traditional heavy infrastructure lending and the introduction of new policy instruments for funding COVID-recovery projects. The AIIB also engaged in collaborative partnerships with other MDBs to access their project pipelines and expertise. Thanks to these efforts, the AIIB not only managed to cope with the challenge, but its leadership also ensured the institution would come out of the pandemic having opportunistically benefited from it. The findings speak to the scholarship on IO resilience and bureaucratic politics. The analysis relies on official documents and original data from 20 interviews with IO officials and experts.
Do representatives of member states in Geneva and officials based in capitals agree on priorities for cooperation in the World Trade Organization? Exploiting an original survey of trade policy officials, we find that respondents representing their countries in Geneva often accord substantially different priorities to institutional reform and policy issues than officials based in capitals. We hypothesize that this ‘Geneva effect’ reflects bureaucratic capacity in capitals and autonomy of Geneva-based officials, and that the effect should be smaller for officials from OECD member states, given extensive interaction outside the WTO to define good regulatory policies and address trade issues of common concern. Empirical analysis supports these hypotheses but also reveals differences in prioritization between Geneva and capital-based officials from OECD countries for specific issues. The results suggest that the prospects of international cooperation may be influenced not only by well-understood differences between states that reflect material interests and domestic political economy drivers, but by differences in relative priorities accorded to issues by officials representing states in international organizations and officials based in capitals.
Scholars of international relations and public administration widely assume that international bureaucracies, in their role as policy advisors, directly influence countries’ domestic policies. Yet, this is not true across the board. Why do some countries closely consider the advice of international bureaucracies while others do not? This article argues that international bureaucracies’ standing as sources of expertise is crucial. We tested this argument using data from a unique survey that measured prevalent practices of advice utilization in thematically specialized policy units of national ministries in a representative sample of more than a hundred countries. Our findings show that ministries’ perceptions of international bureaucracies’ expertise, that is, specialized and reliable knowledge, are the key factor. International bureaucracies influence national ministries directly and without the support of other actors that may also have an interest in the international bureaucracies’ policy advice. Our analysis also demonstrates that the effects of alternative means of influence, such as third-party pressure and coercion, are themselves partly dependent on international bureaucracies’ reputation as experts. The findings presented in this article reinforce the emphasis on expertise as a source of international bureaucracies’ influence, and provide a crucial test of its importance.
Expert authority is regarded as the heart of international bureaucracies’ power. To measure whether international bureaucracies’ expert authority is indeed recognised and deferred to, we draw on novel data from a survey of a key audience: officials in the policy units of national ministries in 121 countries. Respondents were asked to what extent they recognised the expert authority of nine international bureaucracies in various thematic areas of agricultural and financial policy. The results show wide variance. To explain this variation, we test well-established assumptions on the sources of de facto expert authority. Specifically, we look at ministry officials’ perceptions of these sources and, thus, focus on a less-studied aspect of the authority relationship. We examine the role of international bureaucracies’ perceived impartiality, objectivity, global impact, and the role of knowledge asymmetries. Contrary to common assumptions, we find that de facto expert authority does not rest on impartiality perceptions, and that perceived objectivity plays the smallest role of all factors considered. We find some indications that knowledge asymmetries are associated with more expert authority. Still, and robust to various alternative specifications, the perception that international bureaucracies are effectively addressing global challenges is the most important factor.
International public administrations (IPAs) have become an essential feature of global governance, contributing to what some have described as the'bureaucratization of world politics'. While we do know that IPAs matter for international politics, we neither know exactly to what extent nor how exactly they matter for international organizations' policy making processes and subsequent outputs. This book provides an innovative perspective on IPAs and their agency in introducing the concept of administrative styles to the study of international organizations and global public policy. It argues that the administrative bodies of international organizations can develop informal working routines that allow them to exert influence beyond their formal autonomy and mandate. The theoretical argument is tested by an encompassing comparative assessment of administrative styles and their determinants across eight IPAs providing rich empirical insight gathered in more than 100 expert interviews.
International institutions are prevalent in world politics. More than a thousand multilateral treaties are in place just to protect the environment alone, and there are many more. And yet, it is also clear that these institutions do not operate in a void but are enmeshed in larger, highly complex webs of governance arrangements. This compelling book conceptualises these broader structures as the 'architectures' of global governance. Here, over 40 international relations scholars offer an authoritative synthesis of a decade of research on global governance architectures with an empirical focus on protecting the environment and vital earth systems. They investigate the structural intricacies of earth system governance and explain how global architectures enable or hinder individual institutions and their overall effectiveness. The book offers much-needed conceptual clarity about key building blocks and structures of complex governance architectures, charts detailed directions for new research, and provides analytical groundwork for policy reform.
Architectures of Earth System Governance - edited by Frank Biermann May 2020
Our article aims to better understand the role of the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in the increasingly complex global climate governance structure. We employ an innovative approach to addressing this issue by systematically examining the climate secretariat's relations with the main groups of actors involved in this policy domain, in particular with nonparty actors. In a first step, we use social network analysis (SNA) to examine the secretariat's relations with nonparty and state stakeholders and to identify its position in the UNFCCC policy network. An understanding of where the climate secretariat stands in the global climate governance network and which actors it interacts with most allows us to draw preliminary conclusions about the ways in which it connects with other stakeholders to influence global climate policy outputs. In a second step, we conduct thirty-three semistructured interviews to corroborate the results of the SNA. Our findings lend support to the argument that the climate secretariat may gradually be moving from a rather neutral and instrumental stance to playing a proactive and influential role in international climate governance. It aims to increase its political influence by establishing strategic links to actors other than the formal negotiation parties.
The modern era is facing unprecedented governance challenges in striving to achieve long-term sustainability goals and to limit human impacts on the Earth system. This volume synthesizes a decade of multidisciplinary research into how diverse actors exercise authority in environmental decision making, and their capacity to deliver effective, legitimate and equitable Earth system governance. Actors from the global to the local level are considered, including governments, international organizations and corporations. Chapters cover how state and non-state actors engage with decision-making processes, the relationship between agency and structure, and the variations in governance and agency across different spheres and tiers of society. Providing an overview of the major questions, issues and debates, as well as the theories and methods used in studies of agency in earth system governance, this book provides a valuable resource for graduate students and researchers, as well as practitioners and policy makers working in environmental governance. This is one of a series of publications associated with the Earth System Governance Project. For more publications, see www.cambridge.org/earth-system-governance.
The aim of this study is to critically analyze the implications in terms of the relationship between cooperation, conflict, and institutional capital, as well as their interactions with trade marketing and environmentally sustainable development policy making under the framework of NAFTA. The methodology is based on a literature review aimed to create a relationship between the analytical variables in order to obtain a research construct. This research model is used to critically analyze the implications in terms of cooperation and conflict relationships as institutional capital and their interactions with trade marketing and environmentally sustainable development policy making. It is concluded that, although the existence of NAFTA is severely questioned, its institutional capital has positive effects on the implications of trade-marketing; however, environmentally sustainable development proves to be conflictive and highly contentious, although some positive effects are developing.
The aim of this study is to critically analyze the implications in terms of the relationship between cooperation, conflict, and institutional capital, as well as their interactions with trade marketing and environmentally sustainable development policy making under the framework of NAFTA. The methodology is based on a literature review aimed to create a relationship between the analytical variables in order to obtain a research construct. This research model is used to critically analyze the implications in terms of cooperation and conflict relationships as institutional capital and their interactions with trade-marketing and environmentally sustainable development policy making. It is concluded that, although the existence of NAFTA is severely questioned, its institutional capital has positive effects on the implications of trade-marketing; however, environmentally sustainable development proves to be conflictive and highly contentious, although some positive effects are developing.
Cambridge Core - International Relations and International Organisations - The Environment and International Relations - by Kate O'Neill
As climate change pushes against the shorelines of the Pacific Islands, strategies to coalesce power to mitigate for and adapt to environmental degradation become even more relevant. One mechanism employed by the Pacific Islands to overcome conflict is the formation of climate networks that work together to meet the needs of the islands as a region. During this process of networked governance, however, contestations occur between the local and global strategies and knowledges that must be navigated by state and nonstate organizations in these networks in order to achieve their respective aims. In order to gain authority to make decisions and govern on climate issues, these networks employ particular narratives—constructions of the hero, victim, and villain, both human and nonhuman, in the story of climate policy—that both produce and are produced by these local/global contestations. This article explores these issues in the context of the Pacific Island Forum and Pacific Island Development Forum summits leading up to the 2015 Conference of the Parties, and their final climate declarations. Through this investigation, two competing narratives are found—the global technical narrative and the local power narrative. These narratives impacted the deliberations and subsequent climate declarations in these Pacific summits, with both the global technical narrative of the Pacific Island Forum summit and the local power narrative of the Pacific Island Development Forum summit being evident in their final declarations. These narrative constructions have consequences for the representativeness of the decisions made in these networks.
A common observation among those concerned with solving environmental problems and, more generally, with promoting sustainability in human-environment relations is that governance systems work relatively well at the national level but poorly or not at all in efforts to solve international, transnational, and especially global problems (Speth, 2004).1 While the state is a positive force in managing natural resources and protecting the environment in domestic settings, the anarchic character of international society treated as a society of spatially demarcated sovereign states constitutes a barrier to successful governance at the international level.2
This chapter explores the linkages between international trade rules, national security, and various dimensions of human security, which includes the environment, labor, and human rights. It shows how and why such linkages emerged, describes who initiated and opposed them, and explains how they have affected the membership, terms, scope, and interpretations of global trade agreements. In contrast to several other essays in this volume, this chapter focuses not on regional or bilateral trade agreements, but on multilateral ones. It specifically explores trade policy linkages in the context of the International Trade Organization (ITO) , the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Evaluation units, located within public institutions, are important actors responsible for the production and dissemination of evaluative knowledge in complex programming and institutional settings. The current evaluation literature does not adequately explain their role in fostering better evaluation use. The article offers an empirically tested framework for the analysis of the role of evaluation units as knowledge brokers. It is based on a systematic, interdisciplinary literature review and empirical research on evaluation units in Poland within the context of the European Union Cohesion Policy, with complementary evidence from the US federal government and international organizations. In the proposed framework, evaluation units are to perform six types of brokering activities: identifying knowledge users’ needs, acquiring credible knowledge, feeding it to users, building networks between producers and users, accumulating knowledge over time and promoting an evidence-based culture. This framework transforms evaluation units from mere buyers of expertise and producers of isolated reports into animators of reflexive social learning that steer streams of knowledge to decision makers.
While there is little doubt that international public administrations (IPAs) exert autonomous influence on international policy outputs, scholars struggle with the problem of how to measure this influence. Established methods for assessing political influence are of limited use when focusing on international bureaucracies. The main reason is that IPAs do not explicitly state their policy preferences. Instead, they tend to present themselves as neutral administrators, aiming to facilitate intergovernmental agreement. They normally act ‘behind the scenes’. We propose social network analysis (SNA) as an alternative method for assessing the hidden influence of international treaty secretariats. SNA infers influence from an actor’s relative position in issue-specific communication networks. We illustrate the application and usefulness of this method in a case study on the role of the United Nations climate secretariat in a policy-oriented Twitter debate on incorporating gender issues into the global climate policy regime.
This article reviews three recent developments in international coop-eration theory: the introduction of nonstate actors, the study of norms and ideas, and increased examination of the effectiveness, or impact, of international cooperation. Through the lens of the agent-structure debate, we critique the literature that addresses these themes. We argue, first, for a view of structure that goes beyond material proper-ties; second, that more attention could be paid to what distinguishes agency in actors; and third, that this would provide insights into how reflexivity and learning, as well as preference and identity formation, contribute to structural transformation in the inter-national system through iterated processes of cooperation. We also develop ways of applying the agent-structure debate to empirical as well as metatheoretical questions. The article concludes by discussing directions for further research.
This article examines how the World Trade Organization addressed trade and environment issues through a political process, as opposed to the judicial one, which has been the focus of most WTO legal scholarship. It examines the operation of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment, treating the Committee as a site to assess central concerns of governance - that is, who governs - in a globalizing economy. Northern environmental interest groups and many northern academics criticize the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment for failing to propose substantive changes to WTO law in order to grant more deference to national environmental policies having extraterritorial effects. The article, through its focus on the positions and roles of state and non-state actors, provides an empirical grounding to better assess the democratic accountability of the WTO's handling of trade-environment matters. It examines the representativeness of national trade agencies before the Committee on Trade and Environment, the impact of a sophisticated WTO international secretariat in framing debates, shaping knowledge and the appreciation of alternatives, and the role of powerful commercial interests and transnational environmental advocacy groups pressing for their conflicting goals. The basic question addressed is who is represented and how are they represented in determining law's contours through the political process at the WTO. Building from this assessment, the article concludes by examining the prospects and limits of a World Environment Organization.
"This article develops a conceptual framework for the systematic analysis of the interaction between institutions as a first step towards building a theory of international interaction. It examines how international institutions may exert causal influence on each other's development and effectiveness and suggests that four general causal mechanisms can elucidate the distinct routes through which influence travels from one institution to another. Institutional interaction can thus rely on transfer on knowledge, commitments established under an institution, behavioural effects of an institution, and functional linkage of the ultimate governance targets of the institutions involved. The article also puts forward hypotheses about the likely effects of specific types of institutional interaction for governance within the international system. The causal mechanisms and types of interaction are mutually exclusive models that help analyse real-world interaction suitations. They also serve as a basis for the systematic analysis of more complex interaction situations." (author's abstract)
The growing literature about linkages between international institutions remains littered with proposed taxonomies. Most of these taxonomies are conceptual, rather than empirically driven, remaining too vague to offer guidance for empirical research regarding linkages as possible avenues of influence across international institutions. This article argues that institutional linkages are potential causal pathways by which policy making and implementation are influenced. It supplements concepts of structural governance linkages, which are common in the existing literature, with attention to agent-oriented actor linkages. The article offers a typology of governance and actor linkages that can be operationalized in empirical research. It discusses governance and actor linkages between policy making within the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution and the European Union. The paper argues that research on international environmental cooperation would benefit from greater empirical attention to linkages in a context of a multitude of connected governance and actor linkages. Copyright (c) 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This article compares trade-environment rules and their negotiation and implementation in the context of the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the World Trade Organization. As economic integration deepens in each organization, the development of trade-environment rules becomes of increasing interest to richer, greener countries. Professor Steinberg concludes that the interests and power of those countries explain why environment-friendly rules are developing more quickly and thoroughly in the two regional organizations than in the multilateral organization.
In this paper, the interplay between the biodiversity and climate change regimes is examined in the context of a case study. An understanding of how the regimes interact is crucial to their successful operation, since it provides insight into how policy options might be drawn up to create synergy rather than conflict among the respective regimes’ objectives. Despite the increasing importance of the study of regime interplay, due to its potential influence on regime effectiveness, there is limited understanding of why regimes interact and how their interplay may affect their successful operation, since few empirical studies have been conducted in this area. By analysing the causes of the regime interplay and the potential effects thereof, this paper draws policy implications regarding how the interacting regimes might be better co-ordinated to create synergy.
Over the past two decades the functions of international economic institutions have greatly expanded to include programmes and policies which affect a wider range of people, groups, and organisations than before. Where previously people could hold their national governments to account for such policies, they must now look to international institutions where the decisions are being made. But to whom are these institutions accountable and are they accountable to those whom they directly affect? This paper sets out to answer that question in respect of the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO. After analysing the new intrusiveness of the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, we explore how the concept of accountability might best be applied to international economic institutions. The paper then outlines the specific ways in which the IMF, World Bank, and WTO have recently bolstered their accountability through enhanced transparency and monitoring. In conclusion, however, the paper argues that in spite of improvements in accountability, the international economic institutions have not gone far enough in reforming their governance structures. There is a remaining imbalance between what they do, and their legitimacy as perceived by those they affect.
The concept of clustering of multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs), i.e. the integration of groups of MEAs or parts thereof, has acquired prominence in recent discussions about reforming international environmental governance. Understood as a continuing process, clustering of MEAs aims at advancing the ongoing process of integrating the elements of this system more systematically and dynamically. This paper proceeds in three steps. First, it demonstrates that a distinction needs to be made between clustering of organisational elements of MEAs and their functions, since the conditions and the effects of their integration differ significantly. Second, it argues that – in contrast to several existing approaches that seek to build clusters starting from similarities in one dimension – any attempt to integrate elements of MEAs needs to be based upon the analysis of a range of factors that influence the prospects of such integration (including overlap of membership and issues, practical feasibility, legal obstacles, and functional requirements). Third, the article contrasts the main potential benefits of a clustering of MEAs, namely efficiency gains and an increase in the coherence of international environmental governance, with the main challenges of international environmental policy, namely reaching agreement, implementing such agreement effectively and preventing/managing inter-institutional conflict. While clustering cannot be expected to make a significant direct contribution to addressing these challenges, it has a potential to economise and enhance the system of international environmental governance with positive indirect effects promoting better international environmental protection in the longer term.
There is growing recognition in the literature of the important roles played by Chairpersons and secretariats in global environmental negotiations. Less frequently recognized, however, is the interdependence of those roles. Using the example of the climate change negotiations, this paper argues that Chairpersons and the secretariat are locked into a mutually-dependent relationship. Whereas the Chairperson has the political authority needed to exert leadership in the negotiations, the secretariat possesses intellectual resources that can maximize the effectiveness of that leadership. The secretariat's input to the negotiations, however, must be shielded by a "veil of legitimacy," whereby the Chairperson takes responsibility for that input. The paper explores how Chairpersons and the secretariat work together, along with the dysfunctionalities that can emerge in this very personal relationship. In doing so, the paper expands our understanding of exactly how these two actors exert influence in global environmental negotiations. (c) 2007 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Although a number of scholars acknowledge the relevance of intergovernmental bureaucracies in world politics, International Relations research still lacks theoretical distinction and empirical scrutiny in understanding their influence in the international arena. In this article I explore the role of intergovernmental treaty secretariats as authoritative bureaucratic actors in global environmental politics. I employ organizational theories and sociological institutionalism for comparative qualitative case study research that traces variances at the outcome level of two environmental treaty secretariats, the secretariats to the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol ("Ozone Secretariat") and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification ("Desertification Secretariat"). While the organizational design of both secretariats is similar, their institutional histories and outcomes differ markedly. Looking for possible explanations for these differences I focus on the activities of both secretariats and how they relate to the authority they enjoy vis-à-vis the parties they serve. Copyright (c) 2006 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This article assesses the first decade of the trade-environment debate, and explores the possibilities for reconciliation of competing positions on trade-environment issues. It explores three aspects of the continuing conflict over trade and environment in the World Trade Organization. Rejecting both optimistic and pessimistic accounts of the past and future of the trade-environment debate it argues that important changes have occurred that have transformed the debate. But, despite the normalization of the trade-environment debate around the concept of sustainable development significant points of contention remain among the various participants. Copyright (c) 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This article addresses the transformation of the role played by environmental nongovernmental organizations in global politics. Such a change is placed into a larger framework of growing ecological concerns, the evolving political means to address them, and the overall mutation of the global state system. The relationship among environmental organizations, states, and intergovernmental institutions is framed as being an increasingly strategic one, where states seek to instrumentalize environmental organizations in order to prevail, while environmental organizations seek to take over functions previously held by states. Copyright (c) 2001 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Despite the successful launch of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations at Doha, the World Trade Organization faces a legitimacy crisis. Protests continue to rock major international economic meetings, and the WTO s role in globalization is being questioned by many observers. This paper examines the contours of this crisis and explores the possibility that the WTO s indirect ties to popular sovereignty through national governments provide an insufficient foundation for the trade regime s authority and central role in the emerging structure of global governance. Arguing that the WTO needs to re-establish its legitimacy based on wider links to the public around the world in whose name freer trade is pursued, the paper suggests that the WTO must also re-build its reputation for efficacy in a context where success is no longer measured exclusively in narrow economic terms. To be seen as serving the interests of the world community broadly, the trade regime needs to pursue its economic goals in a fashion that shows sensitivity to other important goals and values, such as poverty alleviation, environmental protection, and the promotion of public health. Long-term success further depends on the trade regime becoming embedded within a broader structure of global governance that provides checks and balances and reinforces the legitimacy of international trade policy making.
Chapter IX of the Report of the Consultative Board on The Future of the WTO concerns The role of the WTO Director-General and Secretariat . The report generally expresses concern that the WTO secretariat, although highly skilled and well-regarded has become more timid and passive than in the past, and that the mutual confidence between delegations and WTO staff has declined. The report finds that the Director-General has become more of a spokesperson and marketing executive for the organization than a leader who represents a driving, proactive force in the shaping and brokering of trade negotiations, as compared with the past where Directors-Generals were sometimes regarded virtually as spiritual leaders of the system . It warns that the costs of such a trend will be lost efficiency and a loss of intellectual leadership.