Case studies of the Effectiveness of International Environmental Regimes: Balancing Textbook Ideals and Feasibility Concerns

FNI Report 19/2001. Lysaker, FNI, 2001, 21 p.

This report deals with the principle challenges of case study research on the effectiveness of international environmental regimes related to such issues as case selection, causation, data gathering, regime linkages and qualitative versus quantitative approaches.     The main section of the report is a chronological journey through seven projects dealing with various aspects of regime effectiveness, relating experiences to the principal methodological issues and challenges. A central conclusion is that most often there is a trade-off to be made between textbook ideals and feasibility concerns. However, by careful deliberation of theoretical and methodological challenges in the early project phase, combined with an open discussion of the concessions to feasibility, the final trade-off may still produce both interesting and reliable results.

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