Global Communications and National Power: Life on the Pareto Frontier

TLDR

Regime analysis traditionally addresses market failures through knowledge and institution building, while global communications regimes focus on coordination—either pure or with distributional effects. The study finds that national power distribution determines regime outcomes: asymmetrically distributed power with no consensus on norms prevents regime formation in radio broadcasting and remote sensing, whereas unresolved distributional issues in spectrum allocation and telecommunications lead to regime creation, though principles and rules shift with power changes.

Abstract

Regime analysis has focused on issues of market failure, the resolution of which depends upon knowledge and institution building. Global communications regimes, however, have been concerned either with issues of pure coordination or with coordination problems with distributional consequences. Outcomes have been decided by the underlying distribution of national power. In those areas where power was asymmetrically distributed and there was no agreement on basic principles and norms—radio broadcasting and remote sensing—no regime was formed. In those areas where distributional issues could not be unilaterally resolved—allocation of the radio spectrum and telecommunications—regimes were created, although both principles and rules changed with alterations in national power capabilities.