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Transboundary Fine Dust and “PM 2.5 Diplomacy” in Northeast Asia: Cooperation and Future Challenges

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Risk Management in East Asia

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Abstract

In recent years, fine dust has posed a new challenge for transboundary environmental cooperation. This study examines how Northeast Asian countries have responded to the atmospheric crisis. This study sheds light on the current bilateral, trilateral, and multilateral environmental institutions, and finds both encouraging and discouraging prospects. Spreading transnational networks and rising scientific joint studies have seemingly declared the formation of a preliminary “air governance” in Northeast Asia. However, ongoing cooperation remains noncommitted, and various obstacles remain to be solved. This article suggests that transboundary fine dust appears to be more of a “political” than merely an “environmental” issue. The politicization of the transboundary fine dust issue also implies a hybrid regional “air governance,” which mixes environmental concerns with diplomatic interests. In this regard, regional atmospheric cooperation mirrors the complexity of geopolitics in Northeast Asia, a region that has been struggling for decades in rule-making and with rivalry for leadership.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of International Studies, Pusan National University, Busan, South Korea

    Muhui Zhang

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  1. Muhui Zhang
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Correspondence to Muhui Zhang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institution for Global Public Policy and School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Yijia Jing

  2. Division of International Studies, Korea University, Seoul, Korea (Republic of)

    Jung-Sun Han

  3. Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

    Keiichi Ogawa

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Zhang, M. (2021). Transboundary Fine Dust and “PM 2.5 Diplomacy” in Northeast Asia: Cooperation and Future Challenges. In: Jing, Y., Han, JS., Ogawa, K. (eds) Risk Management in East Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4586-7_10

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