This book studies the deliberative dynamics in the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the United Nations’ specialised agency for regulating international shipping. The importance of international shipping becomes clear when we realise that almost everything is transported through this mode of transportation; indeed 90% of world trade is carried by those vessels we call ships. The study takes a two-step approach whereby it firstly assesses the extent to which the IMO meets the requirements for an ideal deliberative setting and then proceeds to analysing the determinants of variation in deliberative quality within the IMO. Original empirical evidence and findings are used in both stages of the study.

Significantly, within the International Relations discipline, it is unknown what are the factors that can determine the quality of deliberations in international organisations; an important question given the great potential that deliberation holds for improving global governance. It also remains unknown what are the determinants of deliberative quality across state delegations. Those questions are directly answered in this book. This book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of International Relations and International Politics as well as international public policy practitioners and interested readers worldwide.