Post-Treaty Politics ― Secretariat Influence in Global Environmental Governance

Secretariats -- the administrative arms of international treaties -- -would seemsimply to do the bidding of member states. And yet, Sikina Jinnah argues in Post-TreatyPolitics, secretariats can play an important role in world politics. On paper,secretariats collect information, communicate with state actors, and coordinate diplomatic activity.In practice, they do much more. As Jinnah shows, they can influence the allocation of resources,structures of interstate cooperation, and the power relationships betweenstates.

Jinnah examines secretariat influence through the lens of overlapmanagement in environmental governance -- how secretariats help to manage the dense interplay ofissues, rules, and norms between international treaty regimes. Through four case studies, she showsthat secretariats can draw on their unique networks and expertise to handle the challenges ofoverlap management, emerging as political actors in their own right.

Afterpresenting a theory and analytical framework for analyzing secretariat influence, Jinnah examinessecretariat influence on overlap management within the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), twocases of overlap management in the World Trade Organization, as well as a case in which theConvention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) secretariat failed to influencepolitical outcomes despite its efforts to manage overlap. Jinnah argues that, even when modest,secretariat influence matters because it can establish a path-dependent dynamic that continues toguide state behavior even after secretariat influence has waned.

Sikina Jinnah is Assistant Professor of International Relations in the Global Environmental Politics Program at American University's School of International Service.