Diverging Orbits: Situation Definitions in Creation of Regimes for Broadcast and Remote Sensing Satellites

Abstract

The divergent results of two roughly simultaneous negotiations about international regimes for TV broadcasting and remote sensing from satellites reveal that governments do not form preferences by referring only to the interests emphasized in rational choice accounts or to the identities emphasized in sociological institutionalist ones. Tracing the course of the negotiations reveals that governments' perceptions of the interests and identities at stake, and their formulation of their preferences are shaped by their understanding of the contours of the problem or issue at hand. These understandings, or situation definitions, structure political interactions by indicating the causal and moral beliefs relevant to the question at hand, the range of efficacious and acceptable policy means available for addressing it, and the sorts of authority, expertise, skills, and other resources that give particular actors strong claims to inclusion in the process of deciding how to address it.