Environment and Science: Finding Common Ground Through International Agreements. An Insider’s View of Negotiation Processes

Abstract

This chapter describes Senior State Department negotiator Richard J. Smith’s perspective on the negotiating process gained through leading US participation in many of the most important international environment and science agreements undertaken at the closing of the Cold War period. These included, for example, agreements aimed at arresting the deterioration of earth’s ozone layer, building and operating an international space station, ending the destructive practice of drift net fishing on the high seas, and preserving the world’s largest transboundary caribou herd. It reveals unique insights into how obstacles to agreement were overcome. The author provides an insider’s view not only of the negotiations themselves but also of the intense interplay among government agencies through which a US negotiating position is developed and sustained. It emphasizes the importance of informal side meetings and of the crucial role of US leadership in reaching these agreements. In a closing section, it analyzes some of the reasons why the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol failed to deal effectively with the problem of climate change.

This chapter is a revised version of the last chapter of Smith’s book: Richard J. Smith, NEGOTIATING ENVIRONMENT AND SCIENCE: An Insider’s View of International Negotiations From Driftnets to the Space Station (RFF Press, 2009).