Actor Strategy and the Dissemination of Norms:The Case of America’s Withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol

　　Abstract: Not only was America’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol disadvantageous for resolution of the problem of global climate change, it was also met with the universal criticism of the international community. Rationalist explanations and contemporary scholarship on norms are not able to explain why the United States would reject an international norm with respect to the climate. At the same time, scholars have yet to analyze in detail the problem of fit between domestic regulatory structures and international norms. This article borrows from the concept of “actor strategy”， which holds that actors can apply three strategies: language framing, authority union and alternative choice to deviate from the legitimacy and legality of international norms domestically and successfully challenge the structural fit of international norms with domestic norms. This functions to prevent the spread of norms.

　　Author: Xie Tingting is a PhD Student of the China Foreign Affairs University