What Made the World’s Largest “Final Backup” Facility Possible? An analysis of the policy processes leading up to the establishment of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Abstract

This premise of this thesis is to explain the establishment of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and the factors that facilitated the decision for implementation on the Norwegian government’s agenda. To answer the research question, this thesis has employed a theory-guided, within-case analysis of the policy process from the signing of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) until the official opening of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in 2008. The thesis is guided by a theoretical framework that aims to capture the transfer of influence in the policy process. The framework, consisting of the theories of entrepreneurship and policy transfer, investigates the research question on different levels of analysis. The findings indicate that while entrepreneurship provides significant explanatory power, the combined theoretical framework manages to capture factors and nuances on multiple levels of analysis. The empirical findings suggest that the networking strategies and trust-building measures were essential for the establishment of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault and for facilitating the decision of implementation on the Norwegian government’s agenda.