| This research project aims to find an effective way of dealing with Northeast Asia's serious regional marine pollution problems. There have been a number of recent efforts to remedy the pollution problems caused by the region's seas, which are amongst the most contaminated regional seas in the world, but each of these has proven ineffective. The most important of these efforts, the Northwest Pacific Action Program (NOWPAP), has not worked because it took as its model the Mediterranean Action Program (the Med Plan). The Med Plan, which was not entirely successful in its own right, has proven unsuitable for Northeast Asia, which lacks the crucial factors that made possible the limited success the Med Plan has achieved in the region for which it was originally designed. These include a strong hegemonic leader (in the case of the Mediterranean, France) and a well-established scientific research tradition. I show why the Med Plan does not provide Northeast Asia with an appropriate or workable model for its own pollution problems as the first step in proposing an alternative solution. This alternative solution derives from my analysis of various theoretical frameworks drawn from the fields of law, international relations, and economics.; This project also analyzes the unique situation in Northeast Asia at the domestic level. I show how China, the region's chief polluter, has faced difficulties in implementing its environmental standards effectively due to its unique social dynamics. Here, in line with the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis, I argue that a well-designed Chinese economic development policy, which would include the efficient reform of the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the Township Village Enterprises (TVEs), could improve the environmental quality in China. I then offer Korea's recent environmental initiatives and experience as an example of how a positive relationship between economic development and environmental protection can bring about much-needed environmental improvements. Despite its rapid economic development, Korea has successfully developed environmental institutions while introducing various market-based instruments. These have included voluntary measures at both the governmental and private levels. I finally argue that it is a market-based soft institution which would prove most effective in addressing Northeast Asia's serious marine pollution problems. |
