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

46 Chapter 3
constrained to take care of itself, no one can take care of the system.” 29 A
strong emphasis on how the international system forces states to protect
their national interests and to ignore common interests pervades realism
and power-based theory.
In the realist view, states are trapped in a static situation out of which
only a major change of the international system can bring them. According
to Waltz (ibid., p. 108), “states facing global problems are like individual
consumers trapped by the ‘tyranny of small decisions’”:
States, like consumers, can get out of the trap only by changing the structure of
their field of activity. The message bears repeating: The only remedy for a strong
structural effect is a structural change.
The phrase “tyranny of small decisions” refers to collectively unwanted
consequences of individuals’ behavior. A prominent example would be the
“tragedy of the commons.” 30 Numerous examples exist of how society and
other “groups” may dislike the aggregate results of behavior that on the
level of the individual seems rational (Schelling 1978).
Realists assert that the anarchic structure of the international system—a
result of absence of a government, a police force, and a judicial power—
makes nations constantly worry about their survival. In their view, the international
system is a self-help system that severely constrains governments’
ability to cooperate (Waltz 1986, pp. 101–104). Two principal obstacles to
all cooperation follow from this: “A state worries about a division of possible
gains that may favor others more than itself. . . . A state also worries
lest it become dependent on others through cooperative endeavors and
exchanges of goods and services.” (ibid., pp. 102–103)
Following the realist approach, states would cooperate within the global
ocean dumping regime only to the extent that doing so would improve, or
at least maintain, their position relative to other states. States would not
cooperate if the regime weakened their position relative to other states.
Realists would suspect that developing countries generally would be reluctant
about participating in the regime. Because of their poor economic conditions,
power theorists would expect developing countries not to spend
their scarce economic resources on environmental protection and pollution
control technologies. 31 For similar reasons, it seems very unlikely from a
realist viewpoint that developing countries would implement stringent
international environmental legislation, because that would retard their
much needed industrial and economic development.