This paper examines how the emergence and spread of animal diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow disease") or avian influenza have shaped the dynamics of transatlantic trade in live animals and meat products. It then compares the responses of the US and the EU, respectively, to looming, potentially long-term threats of epidemics to human and animal health, focusing particularly on recent outbreaks BSE and avian flu. It documents what appears to be a shift away from a sole reliance on trade embargoes to protect animal and public health from disease outbreaks to deeper, institutional responses on the part of the US and EU respectively. However, while it appears that the EU is learning from the US public health establishment, there is little evidence of transatlantic cooperation in this area.

1. Purpose:

The role of SRI as a private regime is under-studied, and the significance of its structural and discursive effect on global environmental governance is under-theorized. This dissertation aims to theorize the practical and political impact of socially responsible investment (SRI) in global environmental governance. The research assumes that SRI is becoming a powerful transnational institution that influences corporate activities and public discourse on sustainability while creating social and ecological value and knowledge within the conventional financial paradigm. The research hypothesizes that SRI would not only directly impact corporate and environmental practice and behavior (i.e., practical influence) but also implicitly define and disseminate how global financial markets measure ecological and social value and possibly construct an informal regime that shapes the norms and standards of sustainability (i.e., political/discursive influence).

2. Methods:

The research engages in process tracing to unpack a complex interaction in the causal mechanism of the regime impact. The study frames SRI as an emerging private regime in global environmental governance (GEG). It defines the regime’s ‘site’ (area of governance) and ‘mode’ (enforcement mechanism) to analyze how SRI institution functions to regulate globalized environmental problems and how they evolved over the past decades. Critical discourse analysis is used to evaluate the emerging sustainability value among the standard setters and practitioners and to present the causal linkage between the change in the financial market landscape and sustainability value. The analysis utilizes primary sources (e.g., company reports, industrial journals, marketing materials, accounting documents, journalistic articles) and academic papers in the field of business and finance (e.g., business ethics and sustainable finance) to evaluate how norms and values are constructed and reflected in the regime practices.

3. Findings:

The research finds that the rise of the fiduciary institution in the 1990s (fiduciary capitalism) and the associated norm and rules on fiduciaries shaped the ‘site’ of the modern SRI. Along with site change, the regime mode (the norm, value, and practice) shifted its focus from the ecological and moral value to the financial outcome, reflecting the interest of fiduciary institutions. It creates incoherency between the sustainability rhetoric and enforcement practice within the regime, which produces systemic constraints in the enforcement mechanism and ultimately impacts the regime’s net results.

4. Implications/Contributions:

The research contributes a case study to understand why market mechanisms have been far less successful than their proponents argue yet persist as influential governance institutions. Using the case of SRI, this research provides a theory to explain the systemic constraints in the current dominant GEG paradigm. It also offers a redefinition of “responsibility” as in “socially responsible investment” to prevent the terms from becoming an empty source of justification.

The purpose of this dissertation research is twofold: to explain why and how emerging great and middle power countries established new intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and to consider implications for changing global norms and practices of sustainable development. Rather than focusing on either the international context or domestic motivations, this study explains the phenomena of IGO establishments by incorporating factors and strategies at both levels. This study offers two arguments: that emerging great and middle power countries created IGOs as a response to a combination of different international and domestic factors, and that, contrary to initial speculations, this array of new IGOs poses little threat to the existing norms and practices of pre-existing institutions. In this study, three detailed case studies on the Asian Infrastructure Development Bank, the New Development Bank, and the Global Green Growth Institute and their comparative assessment are presented. The findings from this research point to the broader debate on international relations theory investigating the utility and impacts of international cooperation and institutions, international environmental governance, and the effectiveness of international regime complexity and fragmentation. The urgency of developmental and climate challenges, as well as the lasting impact of development projects and policy implementation, makes this research project ever more relevant.

In the last decade, high-volume industrial production of fresh leafy greens including spinach and romaine lettuce has become increasingly linked to outbreaks of dangerous foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7. Current approaches to food safety risk management seek to prevent the introduction of pathogens at field level, through wildlife exclusion practices and the removal of habitat near farms, which can damage environmental conservation efforts. Farmers must balance multiple overlapping requirements coming from government regulation and privately-operated food safety standards, in which food safety concerns may be given priority over environmental sustainability.

Improving food safety in fresh leafy greens without compromising environmental health will require policy solutions that consider the structural roots of food safety problems, and how food safety regulation impacts farmers. This dissertation presents an international comparative policy case study of leafy greens production in the United States and the United Kingdom, in which I evaluate public and private risk management mechanisms that have combined to shape national approaches to food safety, in the context of current political and regulatory trends. Deepening traditional comparative politics literature, this study draws on a structural comparison of public and private standards and interviews with leafy greens producers in both nations to illuminate the social and environmental impacts of various regulatory mechanisms. I demonstrate that food safety standards containing a balance of process-oriented and prescriptive requirements, and a balance between food safety and environmental concerns, are correlated with more environmentally friendly agricultural practices and more favorable farmer perceptions of food safety regulation. From a perspective situated at the convergence of agri-food studies, regulatory practice, and comparative policy, I suggest regulatory changes and supply chain solutions for balancing food safety and environmental sustainability.