Structural analysis of global mineral governance system from the perspective of country

Abstract

The uneven spatial distribution of mineral resources necessitates the construction of mature global mineral governance system to ensure rational allocation of mineral resources. To this end, it is essential to analyze the structure of the global mineral governance system to provide a theoretical basis for the construction. The governance actor is the crucial element in driving the governance process, and country serves as the most central actor. Therefore, clarifying the roles and statuses of different countries in the governance system will be helpful to analyze the structure of the governance system. In the context of advancing globalization, a complex cooperative relationship has been presented between countries based on international organizations. Thus, we establish a national cooperation network based on the principle of the co-existence of countries in international organizations, to quantify these relationships between countries and identify the role and status of different countries, as well as the country communities in the cooperation network, by combining the characteristics of the countries in the network with the actual performance in the organizations. The research findings are as follow: (1) The UK, Germany, France, Sweden, and Canada play pivotal roles in promoting international cooperation as well as leading governance in the governance system. (2) Emerging economies are more actively engaged in these organizations and can promote international cooperation, but lack the capacity to assume leadership roles in governance. (3) The U.S. and China have a stronger ability to lead than to cooperate in the governance system. (4) Most African and South American countries, as well as some European nations, are marginalized in the governance system. (5) Countries with the same needs and similar economic and political conditions belong to the same community: The European countries and the U.S., consumer with a high level of economic and political development but low mineral resource endowment are in the first community. Canada, Australia, and certain African and South American countries, producers with high mineral resource endowments are in the second community. Most African and South American countries with lower levels of economic and political development are in the third group.