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The paper explores the topic of genetically modified organisms (hereafter GMOs) and focuses on national and international regulatory approaches to this field. The analysis herein addresses a multitude of interconnected issues on GMOs as the authors' intention is to explain how a policy problem that is environmental in nature can generate debates and consequences that go beyond the realm and scope of environmental policy. Each of the sections of the paper could be expanded into an autonomous paper. The discussion herein is framed using a comparative case study analysis. The US domestic policy on GMOs is contrasted against the EU policy. These two domestic policies are relevant as they represent the two main contemporary approaches to how GMOs are to be regulated. Furthermore, the clash between the two powers with regard to GMOs is described and explained. Its relevance stems from the profound consequences it generates within the international arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymaking within and among states is under pressure for change. One feature of this change is empirically observed as an activation of different network structures in the Baltic Sea Region, especially since the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the initiation of the Rio process, and the enlargement of the European Union. The contemporary theoretical debates about governance highlight the changing conditions for policymaking and implementation on all societal levels. This process of change, especially evident concerning environmental policies, includes new types of networks crossing state borders both at the supranational and the subnational levels. This article illuminates this process of change with empirical data from the project "Governing a Common Sea" (GOVCOM) within the Baltic Sea Research Program (BIREME). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how far the EU has succeeded in encouraging the content, structure and style of national environmental policies to converge. Using fresh empirical evidence collected from 10 national environmental policies, it presents a very mixed pattern of change, with some elements of national policy converging more rapidly (and through different causal pathways) than others. These findings are viewed through the lens of popular theories of structural convergence, integration and Europeanization respectively, to reach a fuller understanding of the pathways and outcomes of change in an enlarging EU. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]