Effectiveness of international environmental regimes : a case study of the Mediterranean Action Plan

Modern environmental problems are often so extensive that they do not respect national boundaries and cannot be managed by one country acting alone, so their management is attempted through regional or international agreements. The focus of academic research in international relations has been on issues associated with the challenge of achieving international cooperation, Le. on regime formation, and less attention has been paid to the actual effectiveness of implementation after. these' treaties come into force. Hence this thesis aims to investigate the issue of the effectiveness of international environmental regimes by looking at how effectiveness can be defined, and how it can be evaluated in a particular case. The main research question addressed in the thesis is 'What is environmental regime effectiveness and how is it evaluated?' The Mediterranean Action Plan I Barcelona Convention (MAP) was chosen as a case study because existing studies of its effectiveness present sharply contrasting views and, as a long established regime, it may have changed over time. ~xisting approaches to measuring effectiveness in the academic literature are characterised by a debate over institutional versus environmental effectiveness. It is argued that a complete theoretical framework would require inter alia evaluating both the institutional and environmental components of a regime, and also the interaction between them. A study using Q methodology reveals the existence of many discourses on MAP's effectiveness among practitioners. An examination of MAP's environmental effectiveness, shows that the environmental impact of regimes cannot be easily measured, and that the role of science in regime operation should be examined instead. The analysis of MAP's institutional effectiveness identifies a combination of qualitative criteria as determinants of institutional performance. Finally, an overall evaluation ofMAP based on the theoretical framework proposed in the thesis, shows a decline in its effectiveness compared to the early years of its operation. It is argued that it is the combination or trade-off of benefits in both environmental and political terms, that is the key to a regime's success.