The environmental impact assessment system in BBNJ Agreement (EIA system in BBNJ Agree-ment) is one of the most well-recognized global ocean governance arrangements, which is also a practical application of global ocean governance. The global ocean governance includes four elements: Object,Subject,Goal and Regime, and the sovereignty has played a typical role in the formation of EIA system in BBNJ Agreement through the Subject,Goal and Regimes of the global ocean governance. In terms of the subject, the sovereign states dominate the existing EIA system in marine areas beyond national jurisdiction and they are the core promoters of the ongoing negotiation of EIA system in BBNJ Agreement. With regard to the goal, it is to achieve the conservation and sustainable use of BBNJ, which is the reflection of sovereign states’common interests in the long-term. Sovereign states can restrain or transfer the sovereignty power and function with self-determination to achieve the goal of the EIA system in BBNJ Agreement. As for the regime, most of the existing EIA systems in marine areas beyond national jurisdiction are “based on domestic EIA system”, and “respecting and safeguarding the national sovereignty” is the consensus of all parties in the negotiations on BBNJ Agreement, which means that “the spillover of the domestic EIA system” is the developing tendency of the EIA system in BBNJ Agreement.

In an anarchic international society, how and when do decision-makers signal credible commitments, and what are their strategic intentions are always important topics in diplomatic studies. A review of relevant literature reveals three main approaches of credible commitment research. Rationalism approach includes deterrence theory, audience cost theory and strategic mortgage theory, which focuses on cost-benefit framework, also underlines that clear and costly signals will help to enhance the credibility of diplomatic commitments. Cultural constructivism, however, emphasizes the social context of commitment, and points out that credibility depends on the social impressions resulted from discourse communication, cultural norms and interactive practice. Whereas, social psychology highlights that subject's attributes and psychological dispositions deeply influence mutual trust in social interactions, emphasizing the psychological perception, emotional transmission and reputation evaluation mechanism at the micro-level. On the whole, the existing literature deepens our pluralistic understanding about conditions and logics of signaling diplomatic commitments, while a comprehensive analytic framework is still in need to integrate the signal-senders logic and signal-receivers logic, and we also need to pay more attention to the importance of spatial and temporal factors in credible commitments.

The selection and application of marine environmental policy tools in practice might directly affect the effectiveness of policy implementation. The research adopts the method of content analysis. Based on 1982-2016 marine environmental polices promulgated by Chinese government, the research analyzes the use of marine environmental policy tools with the processes of establishing the analytic framework, defining the analytic unit, coding the sample and carrying out frequency statistics. The research indicates that: 1) the command-control policy tools are excessively used. 2) marketing-driven policy tools are used. 3) message-publicity policy tools are outdated. 4) public-participation tools are insufficiently used. Moreover, the allocation of policy tools is unreasonable, policy tool innovation is deficient. At the same time, several problems occurred in the processes of marine environment governance, such as “focusing on the beginning, ignoring the end”, the supervision and guidance within the processes is inefficiency, accountability tools are inflexibility and inefficiency and so on. The article suggests building a comprehensive application pattern of policy tools, focusing on process control, perfecting the system for supervising marine, and advancing policy tools’ innovation.

The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), launched by Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Luxembourg after World War II, can provide enlightenment to joint development in the South China Sea (SCS). The enlightenment of the ECSC could be interpreted as follows: first, the ECSC set up a High Authority with supranational character; second, the ECSC made innovation in the method of gradual functionalism; third, France and West Germany played the leadership role during the establishment process of the ECSC, at the same time, the ECSC also took account of equity and the interests of small countries; fourth, the political elites, such as Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer, demonstrated political wisdom. Although the ECSC and joint development in the SCS are in different historical background, they both face the compromise challenge of the path selections between sovereignty disputes and joint development of resources. The ECSCs policies implications to the joint development in the SCS include: Firstly, the bilateral joint development agreement can proceed in parallel with multilateral joint development arrangement in the SCS; Secondly, the joint development among the SCS coastal states could focus on the oil and gas resources; Thirdly, the SCS coastal states could set up a joint development management authority with supranational character, namely, the South China Sea Authority (SCSA); Lastly, the joint development in the SCS should contribute to the ambitious political and economic goals and the East Asian integration in the future. If the SCS coastal states can successfully carry out joint development, which will promote peace, stability, prosperity and development in the SCS.

Regional cooperation in South Asia begined at the end of the World War II. After 1980, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation and a series of sub-regional organizations gradually make the framework of South Asian regional cooperation. Since the 21st Century, remarkable achievements have been made in the field of free trade, energy cooperation, and subregional cooperation. However, the regional cooperation in South Asia still faces many problems, such as weak executive ability and the lack of cooperation mechanism in security. The geopolitical pattern of South Asia, the deficiency of regionalism, the proliferation of terrorist organizations and the inconsistencies of external strategic focuses among South Asian countries will bring great challenges to the regional cooperation. In the future, a differentiated development may appear in the process of South Asian regional cooperation.