American-Canadian Environmental Diplomacy In The 1970s

In the upsurge of environmental protection activities in the United States and Canada in the 1970s,the United States and Canada signed the "Water Quality Agreement for the Great Lakes" because of the water pollution in the Great Lakes region,and began to cooperate on comprehensive water quality governance in the Great Lakes.This is an important practical example in the history of international environmental diplomacy.The 1909 Boundary Waters Agreement and the International Joint Commission were important foundations for the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.In the negotiation process of the "Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement",the governments of the United States and Canada successfully reconciled a series of contradictions such as the allocation of power and responsibility for pollution issues,the specific methods of pollution control,and the scope of authority of the international joint committee.The agreement stipulates the water quality objectives of the Great Lakes prevention and control;in the capacity of an administrative agreement,required the United States and Canada to complete the objectives of the agreement under their own legal framework;and increased the influence of the committee on the government by giving international joint committee the right to communicate with the public.The agreement also shows that in the diplomacy between the United States and Canada,the United States has made Canada take the initiative to coordinate with the United States by the soft power.They were good at bringing bilateral international organizations to their cooperation.And both of them were willing to have a limited bilateral cooperation and targeted it,ensuring their own independence while guaranteeing its independence cooperation effect.