Introduction

One of the features of the post-Cold War era is the growing numbers of new treaties, and the strengthening of the provisions of older treaties, in the fields of arms control and disarmament and the environment. While regional arms control and disarmament treaties have an impressive level of adherence within their geographical scope, global treaties have not been so successful. The experience in the environmental field is more heartening. Take, for example, three major global environmental treaties for comparison: the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the 1985 Vienna Convention on the Protection of the Ozone Layer and its 1989 Montreal Protocol. Most non-membership of treaties is owing to inertia, insufficient political attention or partial understanding of the benefits involved rather than because of a deliberate political decision to remain outside an international regime.