Making and unmaking of transnational environmental cooperation: the case of reclamation projects in Japan and Korea

Abstract

There has been an ongoing debate about how (or through what mechanisms) global environmental norms have influenced domestic political debates that give rise to green policy choices. In particular, effective international environmental cooperation between transnational and domestic NGOs has been recognized as a key to successful environmental movements. In this regard, the central question guiding research on the politics of environmental norms is, under what condition(s) transnational cooperation among NGOs would be more likely to be sustained so as to achieve its goals. This article proposes that one of the mechanisms missing from the debate is a bottom-up approach through which transnational cooperation can be forged by the initiation of domestic NGOs. Drawing on social movement literature, it is hypothesized that domestic environmental NGOs with more resources, challenging ideologies, and more contentious modes of protest to dominant paradigms is more likely to nurture, develop, and sustain effective transnational cooperation for environmental norms. The validity of this hypothesis is demonstrated through the examination of wetland reclamation projects in Japan and Korea.