Transboundary Fine Dust and “PM 2.5 Diplomacy” in Northeast Asia: Cooperation and Future Challenges

In recent years, fine dust has posed a new challenge for transboundary environmental cooperation. This study examines how Northeast Asian countries have responded to the atmospheric crisis. This study sheds light on the current bilateral, trilateral, and multilateral environmental institutions, and finds both encouraging and discouraging prospects. Spreading transnational networks and rising scientific joint studies have seemingly declared the formation of a preliminary “air governance” in Northeast Asia. However, ongoing cooperation remains noncommitted, and various obstacles remain to be solved. This article suggests that transboundary fine dust appears to be more of a “political” than merely an “environmental” issue. The politicization of the transboundary fine dust issue also implies a hybrid regional “air governance, " which mixes environmental concerns with diplomatic interests. In this regard, regional atmospheric cooperation mirrors the complexity of geopolitics in Northeast Asia, a region that has been struggling for decades in rule-making and with rivalry for leadership.