Environmental cooperation between the North Sea states : success or failure? /

Saetevik (Norwegian Council for Social Science Research, Oslo) has produced a well-conceived and well-executed study of international efforts to protect the North Sea environment. In this exhaustively researched book, based on Paris Commission records and interviews with national delegates, the author uses regime theory to describe and to explain the successes and failures of the Commission in grappling with the difficult environmental problems within its purview. Rigorously structured, Saetevik seldom ventures beyond the scope of his immediate subject, but he accomplishes his task quite well. The lack of an index is a small inconvenience, but clear maps and diagrams in the text, a glossary of technical terms, some useful appendixes, and a complete bibliography make this among the most effectively packaged studies of its type. This is a substantial contribution to the literature on North Sea cooperation (about which surprisingly little is available in English), and a useful addition to regime theory. It should be of interest to graduate students and to many advanced undergraduates. -A. L. Springer, Bowdoin College