Carolyn M. Johns

Subnational diplomacy in the Great Lakes region: toward explaining variation between water quality and quantity regimes

Abstract/Résumés Subnational diplomacy is increasingly important in foreign policy and Canada-United States relations. The Great Lakes region represents an excellent laboratory for studying the role of subnational governments in foreign policy. This article focuses on water policy in the Great Lakes region, and the central research question of why subnational diplomacy varies across water quality and water quantity policy regimes. Using a comparative case approach, the paper investigates the degree to which the character of the policy challenge itself, constitutional and institutional arrangements, and the nature of federalism and intergovernmental relations in the two countries explain differing levels of subnational diplomacy. One case illustrates how institutionalized relationships between subnational units that share interests in a transboundary resource cooperate to engage in subnational diplomacy; the other illustrates more traditional involvement of subnational governments in foreign policy, highlighting that these factors hold significant promise in explaining variation in subnational diplomacy and support existing theory in the paradiplomacy literature.

Environmental regime effectiveness and the North American Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

Scholars and practitioners around the globe are grappling with how to improve the effectiveness of complex, transboundary, and multilevel environmental regimes. International environmental agreements (IEAs) have been around for decades yet achievements and outcomes have not met expectations. While international relations scholars have primarily focused on the effectiveness of agreements between states, public policy scholars have been interested in outcomes at a variety of scales including international, national, sub-national, and local across various environmental policy domains and at the instrument and program levels. This article presents findings from a case study of environmental regime effectiveness that uses a modified version of the Oslo-Postdam solution to assess the effectiveness of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, a long-standing, bilateral international environmental agreement between Canada and the USA. The findings indicate that there is a need to more broadly define international environmental agreements in complex transboundary systems to include both formal and informal regime features and multilevel governance efforts and to focus on specific policy goals and ecological outcomes associated with IEAs. This case also illustrates the potential to modify the Oslo-Postdam approach by combining expert assessment and data collection methods with traditional policy analysis and program evaluation methods in assessments of environmental regime effectiveness.

The Great Lakes, Water Quality and Water Policy in Canada

This chapter focuses on water policy in the Great Lakes region to illustrate the complexities of transboundary, multi-level water governance and policy regimes in Canada. The chapter begins with an introduction of the Great Lakes as a natural resource that provides multiple ecological and human uses. The evolution of policy challenges and responses are introduced along with the various policy stakeholders. The second section reviews the transboundary water policy regime that has evolved to govern this complex system with a particular emphasis on water quality and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The third section focuses on analyzing what the Great Lakes case illustrates about water policy in Canada from a historical and comparative perspective. The focus in this section is on answering two key questions: How does the Great Lakes case help us understand water policy in Canada and how does this regional transboundary water policy regime impact water policy in Canada? The final section of the chapter focuses on the lessons and insights that can be drawn from the case of the Great Lakes for water policy in Canada and beyond.