Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas ... - IMO

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Introduction
In this book I seek to narrow the ideational and normative gap in studies
of environmental regimes. I intend to demonstrate that we can improve our
understanding of the dynamics of international environmental regimes considerably
by focusing in a systematic way on ideas and ideational factors.
In particular, I document that powerful public ideas and policy entrepreneurs
can significantly influence the processes of regime formation and
regime change.
Public ideas are widely accepted ideas about the nature of a societal problem
and about the best way to solve it. 1 They are about the welfare of society,
and therefore they differ from private concerns. By defining how
societal problems are perceived, public ideas shape policy and public debate
about policy. Ideas about which there is societal consensus remain stable
over time, and they differ from ideas that are altered frequently and from
ideas that are promoted by special-interest groups. 2 Public ideas are held
by society, not just by individuals, and therefore there is a fundamental difference
between public ideas and individual beliefs. 3 Under certain circumstances,
the interplay of public ideas and transnational 4 coalitions of policy
entrepreneurs creates and changes environmental regimes.
Studies of regime building and regime change in the environmental field
have been concerned predominantly with the use of power, the pursuit of
rational self-interest, and the influence of scientific knowledge. Scholars
have paid far less attention to the role of ideational factors in creating and
changing the principles and norms of environmental regimes. Surprisingly,
the processes by which the norms and principles of regimes are developed
and changed have received little explicit attention, despite widespread agreement
among regime analysts that regimes are defined and constituted by