ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Southern states face compliance and implementation problems with regard to environmental treaty obligations. It explores why the specific issue of environmental management presents unique challenges to Southern state sovereignty in an age of globalization. The chapter discusses various theories of compliance in order to understand how to build capacity in Southern states for more efficient environmental management. It provides three general approaches to compliance theory have emerged – realist, game-theoretic, and managerial. The chapter also explores why the study of environmental compliance is a much more cumbersome intellectual exercise than compliance studies involving traditional high-politics matters. It investigates the problems associated with Southern sovereignty and environmental treaty compliance. The chapter concludes with a call for further empirical research to investigate Southern compliance issues and outlines how the international community might come to better understand the problems associated with Southern sovereignty and environmental management capacity.
