Constant Tension: Regulating International Shipping

Abstract

line, but ease that tension to prevent the very dangerous possibility of the line parting and to enable the controlled movement of the ship. Elizabeth DeSombre's Ragging Standards looks at similar situation. It analyzes contemporary efforts to establish and maintain rigorous standards for the international shipping industry (tension on the line) without creating so much regulation, with its negative economic impact, that the system cannot operate (and the line parts from the stress). The book is strong and insightful study of the world's second oldest profession, and in it DeSombre makes relatively rare and quite valuable contribution both to the specialized literature on international shipping safety and to the broader literature on the formation and effectiveness of international regimes in an era of globalization. Both the most optimistic neoliberal institutionalists and those critics of international regimes who are least sanguine about the prospects for international cooperation will be equally disappointed in DeSombre's conclusion. In essence, she argues that--with respect to environmental, safety, and labor regulations in the shipping industry--the race is not to the top, or to the bottom, but to the middle. After exploring the roles of states, international organizations, industry groups, and international civil society actors, DeSombre unfolds what is, in her words, a regulatory middle ground, where profit is still possible and moderate level of protection achievable (p. 229). As contribution to the theoretical literatures on both international regimes and globalization, Flagging Standards usefully explores the efficacy of host of interrelated efforts that are designed to improve the governance of international shipping. Given that international shipping is critical global business in terms of the volume of goods involved, greater understanding of efforts to make it cleaner and safer industry is quite valuable. Her pursuit of that understanding leads DeSombre to the consideration of the roles played by states and numerous nonstate actors. Although states remain the dominant actors in the international shipping regime, efforts to raise environmental, safety, and labor standards have emerged from the interrelated efforts of several important Each of these clubs, because of the exclusivity of their membership requirements, can compel actors who perform poorly to either come up to club standards, leave the market, or operate, often illegally, at the lowest end of the industry. In shipping terms, the last option involves moving the least profitable cargoes between ports that have the lowest standards because one's ship is effectively locked out of other opportunities. DeSombre very effectively develops the concept of exclusion as an incentive in an early chapter. Thereafter, she devotes individual chapters to the formation and performance of the state and nonstate clubs. Readers