Abstract:
This thesis examines the upcoming process of developing internationally binding rules for ship scrapping. By use of the topical case of the Danish ferry ‘Kong Frederik IX’, potential obstacles in the international negotiation process are identified. The case is approached by use of the ideas and methodology of Emery Roe’s Narrative Policy Analysis, and we lean on both interviews with a number of central stakeholders and on a varied range of literature (work and conference papers, legal texts, guidelines, newspaper articles, and web sites). The case study is used to create an operational platform from which the political complexities of international regulation of ship scrapping can be discussed in a North–South perspective.
The report documents how the regulative situation surrounding the ship scrapping scenario is addressed by or falls in between several sets of international regulation (both environmental agreements as the Basel Convention and trade regimes like the WTO), and how it therefore can be characterized as a “floating” regulative situation open for interpretation. It is also documented how numerous stakeholders are positioning themselves with very different political agendas and with sometimes conflicting economical interests, and how their interpretation of which rules apply is extremely different. This unclear and polarized regulative situation is in itself a potential obstacle for the development of internationally binding regulation of ship scrapping.
More specifically, the report maps out how the numerous stakeholders draw on different and sometimes antagonistic policy narratives to justify their positions and actions. The narrative analysis recasts the stakeholder scenario in a way that helps explain the before mentioned polarization and the complexity that seems to characterize the situation. The case analysis functions as a heuristic device and also identifies a number of critical aspects that could be examined further: the basic disagreements over whether an end-of-life vessel should be considered a product or waste; the polarized positions on where to place the burden of more environmentally friendly and more safe ship scrapping procedures; and the future competences and legitimacy of the relevant international institutions, most prominently the International Maritime Organization and the Basel
Authors:
1) Ea Krogstrup (IU/TEKSAM)
2) Karen King Nash Arleth (TEKSAM)
Affiliation:
International Development Studies and TEKSAM. University of Roskilde , Denmark
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