ABSTRACT
The dramatic imagery of wandering sand dunes that expand to irreversibly devour ever more fertile land represents a gross distortion of the actual phenomenon of desertification. This notwithstanding, it provides for a valid illustration of the transboundary nature of ecological deterioration. Indeed, in our world of ‘global transformations’, environmental problems are arguably the most blatantly ignorant of national jurisdictions and state borders.2 It is hardly surprising then, that the challenges humankind faces in the field of environmental policy have been driving the research of complex interdependencies in world politics and transnational policy making. Hence, the analysis of international environmental co-operation has advanced our understanding of the institutionalisation of international politics tremendously (see Zürn 1998; Mitchell 2002). This holds in particular for the prolific branch of scholars that has dedicated itself to the analysis, first, of the emergence and, then, the effectiveness of international institutions. Many of these scholars derive their theoretical understanding of international institutions from the empirical analysis of numerous case studies on environmental regimes (see Haas, Keohane, and Levy 1993; Young, Levy, and Osherenko 1999; Miles 2002).
