DIRECT ENFORCEMENT ON THE HIGH SEAS: THE STRATEGY OF THE SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY
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Authors
Phelps Bondaroff, T. N.
Date
2015-07Awarding Institution
University of Cambridge
Qualification
PhD
Language
English
Type
Thesis
Metadata
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Phelps Bondaroff, T. N. (2015). DIRECT ENFORCEMENT ON THE HIGH SEAS: THE STRATEGY OF THE SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY (doctoral thesis). https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.63837
Abstract
This study examines the anti-whaling strategy of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
(SSCS). Despite being relatively small and resource poor, this confrontational marine
conservation organization has been successful in frustrating Japanese whaling in the Southern
Ocean through the use of what it describes as ‘aggressive non-violent direct action.’ Adopting an
inductive approach, the study uses participant observation and process tracing in order to
uncover those mechanisms which make the SSCS strategy effective. In understanding this
strategy, which is unlike any other described in the transnational environmental activism
literature, the study seeks to add to our understanding of the role and power of non-state actors in
international affairs.
A close examination reveals that the organization is engaging in a strategy which can be
described as ‘direct enforcement’ (DE) – whereby it seeks to enforce existing marine
conservation laws. The SSCS supports its claims as an enforcement organization through the use
of legal language, symbols and imagery. It also selects targets which can be accused of violating
the law, and gathers evidence to support these accusations. Once it has identified such a target,
the SSCS interferes with the operations and attempts to prevent illegal and environmentally
harmful activities, and to directly increase the target’s costs of operation.
This study explores some of the mechanisms upon which DE relies. Aggressive
intervention exposes activists to potential retaliation from targets and states. Several mechanisms
reduce potential retaliation. First, activists are protected by the principle of unclean hands:
targets do not wish to draw attention to their own wrongdoings by indicting activists. Second,
activists surround themselves and their actions in a complex web of international laws, which
tends to deter state prosecution, because states generally wish to avoid complications or
potentially embarrassing international incidents.
By actively enforcing laws where states lack capacity and/or political will to do so, DE
enhances the compliance pull of international laws. Through the use of DE, activists also exert
powerful legal leverage against states. Eschewing traditional activist approaches such as the
‘mobilization of shame,’ DE not only criticizes states for their failure to live up to their
international obligations and commitments, but supports these claims with confrontational
actions which cannot be ignored.
Keywords
conservation, activism, international relations, non-state actors, strategy, marine conservation, direct action, whaling, Sea Shepherd
Identifiers
This record's DOI: https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.63837