How is a natural common pool resource such as a sea, which is shared by several countries, best governed? The potential for international conflict is immense, as each country may have different agendas with regard to issues such as exploitation and environmental protection.

This book uses a case study of the Baltic Sea region to examine this complex problem. The sea itself has been highly vulnerable to pollution and recently the bordering nations have cooperated and tackled the issue by establishing several new forums to manage the sea. Administrative and political structures developed in the region are reviewed and shown to provide a model which could be applied to other seas and natural resource systems elsewhere in the world.