Self - Organization Governance Of Global Public Domain

Global commons refer to areas and resources beyond the jurisdiction of sovereignstates. From the beginning of the20thcentury, mankind was continuously expandingtheir sphere of actions in the world thanks to the rapid development of science andtechnology. Nation-states carried out more and more activities in outer space,international areas of seabed and Polar Regions. However, how to govern the spaceand resources beyond national jurisdiction becomes a major challenge forinternational society, especially in an international system built up the basis ofindependent sovereign states. The principle of sovereignty supremacy makes sure thatstates’ behaviors are aiming at defending national security and promoting nationalinterests, like enhancing their control of global commons, maintaining their strategicsuperiority, and acquiring global resources effectively. Those behaviors show greatcharacters of Realism. At the same time, with the increasing degree ofinterdependence between states in the globalization era, people come to realize thatthey share common interests and common destiny in all aspects of global commons.The less developed countries who are unable to explore and make use of resources inareas belonging to global commons can only turn to international institutions for amore normative and balanced interests and responsibilities. The basic order in globalcommons areas were set up step by step along with the struggle and coordinationbetween realism model and institutionalism model. However, the two models bothhave some limits. The realist model may take the world back to arms race and theinstitutionalism model may produce rigid and complicated international institutions.This dissertation aims at exploring the possibility of other governance model indomains of global commons besides realist and institutionalism models.Firstly the dissertation studies on the definition and scope of global commons andthe current governance situations. Then the author puts forward the self-organizedgovernance model of global commons. This model derives its essential ideas andconcepts from self-organization theory of complex system theory and considers all behaviors of states and non-states actors in global common areas are a process ofself-organization. Complex system theory is a science studying on order, with thecharacters of unity, complexity and non-linearity, which can well explain theanarchical international system. The author borrows ideas from Dissipative StructureTheory and Synergetics and uses these ideas to interpret the conditions and process ofglobal commons self-organization. To sum up, the self-organized governance ofglobal commons can be described as follows: the openness of international societyand the imbalanced powers, interests and responsibilities between nation-states triggerthe process of self-organized governance of global commons among internationalsociety. The process of self-organized governance includes four stages, namelycompetition among nation-states due to different interests and ideals, synergeticeffects due to the enlargement of cooperation and recognition, the establishment ofgoverning principle and mechanism, and the expanding and evolving influence of theexisted order. In the process of self-organized governance of global commons, theeffectiveness of governance depends on whether these governing mechanisms canbalance powers, interests and responsibilities among all nations and within one nation,and also depends on the open degree of the system, the progressivity of negotiations,and the adaptability of the institutions. Thus, it is easy for countries to reachconsensus in the aspect of governing space-related resources like voyage in high seasand satellite launching. These resources are international public goods with thecharacters of non-rivalry and non-excludability, which may be governed by marketprinciple. It is quite hard for countries to reach consensus in the aspect of dealing withnon-renewable resources like mineral resources in seabed and moon. These resourceswith characters of rivalry and excludability need international regulation most whilegive the least space to countries to make necessary compromises.Global commons imply infinite space which contains essential resources forhuman beings’ development in the future. The innovations of this dissertation lie inthe perspective of studying global commons as a unity, discussing the definition,scope and current governance situation of global commons, and interpreting theself-organized governance of global commons from the angle of complex system theory. Lands under the control of sovereign states are only a papery layer of crustabove the sea-level while humans have been fighting for them for thousands of years.How to avoid conflicts in global commons and how to carry out effective and justgovernance in global commons domains are serious questions in front of China whenit is approaching the center of the world.