Open Collections

Rogers, Rebecca

University of British Columbia

The increasing interest in Arctic shipping is seen as an opportunity by some and an environmental threat by others. In 2020, the International Maritime Organization considered a draft ban on the use and transport of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic. While the ban was adopted in 2021, the original draft was drastically modified with a delayed implementation timeline and multiple extensions. This thesis asks why and how these changes were made and considers the roles played by the participants in the process. The thesis takes a qualitative approach by interviewing a diverse range of actors, including individuals from state delegations, environmental non-governmental organizations, industry actors, and Indigenous organizations who participated in the ban’s drafting, negotiation, and acceptance. Interviews were coded using the framework of norm entrepreneurs and norm antipreneurs to analyze how actors either fought for the norm or attempted to resist the norm through framing, grafting, coalitions, and other strategies. The thesis finds that while the norm was ultimately accepted, the norm evolved through the course of the process, with some actors quick to switch sides in the debate. The study considers how these findings question the relationship of agency and structure in the broader literature and concludes by calling for greater research on the role of legality in norm acceptance.

Text

2021-10-27

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/80086

Political Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/