Development of Institutions on the Environmental and Technological Cooperation in Northeast Asia: Actors, Decisions and Path Dependence

This dissertation looks at Northeast Asia as a region composed of China, Japan and South Korea in order to understand the regional dimension of international cooperation. It takes the Tripartite Environment Ministers’ Meeting and the China-Japan-Korea Meeting on Information and Telecommunication Standards cases for comparative analysis. Its aim is to examine cooperation and decision-making under uncertainty and to explore how they affect institutional development and enhanced regional cooperation. Analysis of current cooperation activities as well as development of chosen cases illustrates interactions between individuals, organizations and states. Risks associated with decision-making affect behaviors of actors and self-reinforcement mechanisms of institutions creating path dependence.