Chapter 1 Introduction
1.5 Organization of Thesis Chapters
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For this second phase, I will do the same process all over again, except with the cases in Group A instead of Group B. Basically, I will compare the two cases in group A against each other to find the independent variables that are present in all cases. Those independent variables will be identified as the factors that contribute to the failure of sanction threats. Then I will use process tracing to find the causal chains/causal mechanisms that link those independent variables with the outcome shared by all cases in Group A.
Finally, in the last and final phase of the study, I will conduct a case comparison between Group A and group B to find the factors that caused the two groups to act differently in response to the sanctions threats from the EU. In this phase of the study, the variables that are present in both groups can be discarded and the variables that are not present in both cases can be regarded as the possible factors that contribute to the difference in outcomes between the two groups.
In conclusion, this study will be divided into three phases. In the first phase of the study, I will employ “Mill’s method of agreement” to compare all the cases in Group B against each other to find the variables that are associated with the “success” of the EU’s sanction threats. In the second phase of the study, I will, again, employ “Mill’s method of agreement” to compare all the cases in Group A against each other to find the variables that are associated with the “failure” of the EU’s sanction threats. After each phase of the study is finished, I will also use process tracing to find the causal chains and mechanisms that link the variables to the outcomes of the cases. Finally, in the final phase of the study, I will employ
“Mill’s method of difference” to find the factors that contributed to the difference in outcomes between the two groups.
1.5 Organization of Thesis Chapters
The purpose of the thesis is to find factors which contributed to the success and failure of the sanction threats that the EU decided to put on seven countries in Asia for their lack of commitment in its international fight against IUU fishing. The thesis will be organized into six chapters as follows.
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Chapter 1 (this chapter) serves as an introduction to the research. The first part of the chapter provides a brief background of the issue of IUU fishing in Asia and explains my motivation for conducting this research. Apart from the
background of the issue, the chapter also describes the significance of the
research, the research question, the objective of the research, the hypothesis of the research, and the research design.
Chapter 2 is the literature review. The chapter is divided into three parts;
1) the basics of economic sanctions, 2) the scholars’ debate on the effectiveness of economic sanctions, and 3) the determinants of sanctions success and failure. The first part of the chapter (the basics of economic sanctions) reviews the definitions of economic sanctions, the types of economic sanctions, the components of a sanctions episode, and the different motives behind the use of economic
sanctions. In the second part, the chapter discusses different opinions of modern scholars on how effective are economic sanctions as tools of statecraft. In the third part, the chapter provides different ideas and arguments of modern scholars on what contributes to the success and failure of economic sanctions.
Chapter 3 contains details on how I arrive at my main argument that the target’s regime type is the determinant of the success and failure of sanction threats. In this chapter, I seek to find the major factors that contributed to the success and failure of the EU’s economic sanctions threats by looking into different circumstances of the six cases under examination. The comparative method will be used to single out the variables that may be associated with the outcomes of the cases and the hypothesis will be constructed based on the findings.
Chapter 4 is the study of the cases in which the target states chose to not comply with demands from the EC in the threat stage of their sanctions episode.
The two cases that will be examined in this chapter are the cases of Cambodia and Sri Lanka. By examining these two cases, I wish to demonstrate how the
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undemocratic nature of the states contributed to their decision to not comply with demands from the EC.
Chapter 5 is the study of the cases in which the target states chose to comply with the EC’s demands in the threat stage of their sanctions episode. The four cases that will be examined in this chapter are the cases of South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan. In this chapter, I will explore the circumstances that prompt these countries to increase their attempts to eliminate IUU fishing activities conducted by vessels flying their flags both within and outside their jurisdictional waters. By the end of this chapter, I wish to be able to demonstrate how factors like the level of democracy in each state, the country’ reliance on the EU as a fish export market, the country’s preparedness in fighting against IUU fishing and the involvement of another superpower such as the United States in the sanction episode, could possibly affect each country’s response to the EU’s demands.
Finally, Chapter 6 is the conclusion. It provides a brief summary of
everything I discovered through this research. In this chapter, the case of Vietnam will also be briefly discussed. I will use what I have learnt from the research thus far to make a prediction on how the Vietnamese government will respond to the EU’s threat in the future and whether Vietnam will be able to get its yellow card revoked.
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