Environmental Responsibility: Oceans and the Polar Regions

Political Theory, Philosophy and International Relations have been debating the concept of responsibility over the course of several decades. This chapter elaborates some of the theoretical and normative implications of linking actors to specific objects by developing a twofold framework for analysis as well as theorizing institutional design. The empirical focus of the chapter lies on the polar regions and global oceans as global environmental commons. In the latter half of the twentieth century, governance institutions for the polar regions as well as global oceans have developed considerably. These institutions have provided a site for containing some of the Cold War geopolitics and created a network of scientific cooperation, which has greatly enhanced the understanding of vital components of the global ecosystem. However, responsibility has been assigned mostly with regard to managing resources. The challenges arising from climate change raise anew the question of who should be responsible for oceans and the polar regions in the twenty-first century. The chapter argues that this issue is complicated further by the lack of local voices or even their absence.