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

154 Chapter 9
with messages of support from individuals and organizations around the
world, including Jacques Cousteau, the mayors of towns and cities along
the French and Spanish Atlantic seaboard, scientific groups, environmentalists
and seafarers’ unions. . . . It is ironic that it has taken a successful act
of defiance against Government policy by three unions to protect Britain’s
good name in the international maritime community.” (Slater 1983) With
the 1983 moratorium resolution signaling the turning point, international
public opinion no longer accepted ocean dumping of radioactive materials.
In the eyes of the public, the previous policy had lost its legitimacy.
Greenpeace was also influential in the next stage of regime change. In the
period 1983–1985, it pressured governments to refrain from radwaste
dumping, and it mobilized stakeholders and interest groups. Greenpeace
linked the domestic level and the regime level in a number of effective ways.
By patrolling the oceans on the lookout for dumping ships, it created a sort
of monitoring of and forced compliance with the regime. As was described
in chapter 8, it instantly communicated information about the 1993
Russian nuclear dumping in the Sea of Japan to the Japanese government,
which immediately reversed its policy on the issue. By exposing breaks of
regime rules, Greenpeace increased the political costs of noncompliance by
states. Moreover, Greenpeace coupled interest groups at the domestic level
with those at the regime level. Through its recruitment of the British trade
unions in 1983, it successfully forged an alliance with domestic actors in
order to pressure a recalcitrant government to comply with international
environmental rules. The British seamen had regime interests and urged the
British government to comply with the rulings of the dumping regime. To
build European opposition to radwaste disposal, Greenpeace also mobilized
the Spanish opposition to nuclear ocean dumping. Opposition to radwaste
disposal was increasingly transnationally organized, and protests and
boycotts intensified dramatically. While the Greenpeace campaign increased
public pressure on the British government to halt the dumping, it also
increased public pressure on the Spanish government to protest against the
dumping. Greenpeace was a skillful and resourceful two-level player within
the regime. 1
Though combining a powerful public idea with national and international
entrepreneurship was crucial, it should be acknowledged that connections
to domestic electoral policies and special circumstances were
crucial too. 2 The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was already