International negotiations over the global commons

Abstract

Countries today navigate a multipolar world defined by tensions between great powers. How do middle powers, small states, and Global South countries fare in this geopolitical landscape? Can they shape new international agreements on emerging, divisive topics, like trade-and-environment issues? To explore this question, I investigate the twenty years of negotiations that led to a new treaty seeking to preserve the global commons: the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (AFS). Using text-as-data analyses and a rich trove of WTO documents, I investigate the sources of the treaty text. I find that middle powers, small states, and countries from the Global South contributed to the agreement; they did so by forming coalitions with like-minded countries. The findings demonstrate that a wider range of states can effectively participate in international negotiations than traditionally assumed.