Introduction

In Lynton Caldwell's extensive historical account of the development of international agreements for environmental protection, he points to the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (the Stockholm Conference) as the turning point in the development of a new paradigm in environmental thinking. As Caldwell writes,

Pollution of the atmosphere, species loss, nuclear power safety, and ocean and sea pollution are some of the problems that are transforming the nature of international politics. As these issues become more and more pressing, the boundaries of states are increasingly blurred. The inefficient use of coal or the inability to treat a communicable disease in one state not only ravages that state's environment and populace but also has direct and frequently dramatic ramifications for other states. Individual states are ill-equipped to respond alone to the myriad challenges posed by transboundary environmental, social, and health problems. As the rapid growth in the number of international environmental agreements since the 1970s attests, the resolution of these types of problems requires extensive cooperation and coordination among states in the formulation and implementation of policies.