Nationalism as a Factor for an International Environmental Regime: Korea and the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network (EABRN)

Abstract

This article reveals the role nationalism plays when states collaborate for the purpose of ecological research. Working from the perspective of international regime theories, the author develops a case study around the East Asian Biosphere Reserve Network (EABRN), a project under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Beneath the official explanations set forth by UNESCO and member countries reside other motives for the formation and implementation of the EABRN, and in the case of North Korea and South Korea, nationalism certainly figured. The main argument made here is that nationalism should be studied as a possible force of forming and developing international environmental regimes. This can pose a challenge to the widespread assumption that nationalism is generally at odds with globalization. When applied to the international regime theories, however, the case study also identifies such elements as epistemic community and national leadership as determinants.

Keywords:

• International environmental regime
• nationalism
• Korean reunification
• epistemic community
• UNESCO
• North Korea
• South Korea

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Professors Jack P. Manno and David A. Sonnenfeld of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and Professor Stuart J. Thorson of Syracuse University for their comments on an earlier version of this article. They may not agree with all of the findings presented here, and any errors belong to the author alone. Two anonymous reviewers and this issue's guest editor are also thanked for their critical insights.