The Dynamics And Effectiveness Of The Transformation Of International Whaling Regime

International regimes, defined as implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of international relations, are useful approaches in responding to common problems and fostering collective actions in the international society. After the formation of international regimes, they are undergoing a series changes due to internal and external pressures, and thus in order to respond to those problems effectively these regimes must change accordingly. The static theory of international regimes cannot explain the transformation of international regimes and thus we need a dynamic theory of international regimes to tell us the forces drive the transformation. The main forces behind the transformation of international regimes are dominant ideas or norms at the international level, the preferences of hegemony in the system, and the push from non-state actors. Those forces are not acting alone; they usually join forces in promoting the transformation.This dissertation tries to answer the questions why the international whaling regime had transformed from a whaling club into an anti-whaling club through the study of international whaling regime with the1946International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW1946) at its core. The dissertation also tries to find out how the present stalemate in the international whaling regime came into being and how to respond to the stalemate effectively? More than60years since the assignment of1946International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling and it underwent a sea change alone the course. The most dramatic change happened in1982when the member of International Whaling Commission voted for a moratorium on commercial whaling since the1985-1986whaling season. Forces at three levels made this transformation possible:the rise of environmentalism especially the spread of non-human centered environmental ideas at the international level made possible more attention being paid to endangered species with whales prominently stands out among them; the United States as a dominant power in the international whaling regime promoted the transformation with the spread of its own anti-whaling preference and also influencing other countries’ preferences being forced or not; the rise and more influences from non-state actors like Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd Society also promoted the change through working hard through multi-channels to the International Whaling Commission which fastened the realization of the whaling moratorium.But whaling countries like Japan, Iceland and Norway still hunt whales by using the loopholes of ICRW1946, such as the permission of scientific whaling and whaling under the procedure of objection. The International Whaling Commission cannot manage those whaling effectively in the present situation. The United States as an anti-whaling leader in the1970s and early1980s also cannot use its domestic law to sanction those non-compliance countries effectively; and for the environmental non-governmental organizations part, they also diverged in what actions to take in responding to the whaling activities.The current stalemate is not good for the preservation of whales, besides the harpoon, other threats like accidental hit by ships, marine environment pollution and climate change all pose serious threats to whales. In order to protect whales effectively, there must be some reform for the international whaling regime. Those includes the reform or possibly revision of ICRW1946especially for those loopholes and make scientific whaling and whaling under objection under the management of International Whaling Commission; foster the positive interplay with other international regimes which are helpful for the protection of whales such as Convention on Biodiversity, Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, so as to protect whales through multi-platforms; promote the effective participation of environmental non-governmental organizations in the international whaling regime, and made their participation institutionalized into the whaling regime, and to take advantage of its wide membership in public education, and to guide their effective actions outside the international whaling regime.