Understanding the Evolving International Collaborative Governance for Transboundary Air Pollution in Northeast Asia: An Institutional Collective Action Perspective

This article draws on the institutional collective action (ICA) framework to summarize the evolving collaborative mechanisms for addressing transboundary air pollution developed by countries in Northeast Asia (NEA) over the past three decades and to explain why NEA countries selected these mechanisms over time. We find that the three decades of collaboration can be divided into three stages with three interconnected and progressive goals: information exchange, joint research and technical cooperation, and action plans. The choice of mechanisms by NEA countries at different stages depends on the collaboration risks at that stage and the costs of the mechanisms under consideration. Because of the increasing collaboration risk, participating countries tend to use informal embedded mechanisms in the first stage of information exchange, then the formal contractual mechanisms at the second stage of joint research, and the most formalized authority mechanisms at the third stage of action plans. However, if the costs of the authority mechanisms are too high, participating countries may fall back on the contractual mechanisms. This article extends the ICA framework beyond local governments to transnational environmental collaborations involving national state actors, identifies three collaboration risk sources, and reveals how the mechanism choice shifts over time in this context.