Epistemic communities: Necessary or sufficient for environmental cooperation? An analysis of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions (Mancur Olson)

Why do environmental regimes form easily in some regions and not others? What roles do epistemic (scientific and stakeholder/activist) communities play in the process of regime formation? This study examines the factors influencing the formation of regional environmental agreements in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions. This study employs a qualitative comparative methodology to examine collective action problems of environmental cooperation through the lens of public choice theory, building on the work of Mancur Olson's bi-product theory (1965). The cases of the Black Sea and Caspian Environment Programmes provide illuminating empirical evidence of the varying roles of epistemic communities in the formation of regional environmental regimes. This study demonstrates that while epistemic communities play an advisory role, they are less influential than previously argued (P. Haas, 1990). Rather, this research demonstrates that the incentives to join regional environmental agreements in the Black Sea and Caspian regions are shaped by domestic policy-makers' anticipation of net economic gains for joining regional environmental cooperative agreements. This assertion is supported by a qualitative cost/benefit analysis of anticipated gains from environmental cooperation for domestic level policy makers in these regions. The assertions of this work challenges the academic assumptions that environmental cooperation occurs primarily because domestic policy makers are driven to sign international environmental agreements by active domestic forces concerned with improving environmental stewardship.