When the oil and fishing industries live side by side

Abstract When two industries make competing claims to exploit resources in the same geographic area, conflicts may arise. While a substantial literature deals with the resolution of such conflicts between industrial interests and environmental conservation, the research on successful resolution of coastal industry-industry conflicts is limited. As noted by [45] , “the emerging field of coastal conflict research has no clear contours. It develops from different disciplines, theories, approaches, practical knowledge requirements, and does not become, as far as can be foreseen, a fully integrated knowledge field…in-depth analysis of conflicts and empirically based approaches to conflict resolutions are hardly found”. This article fills some of these knowledge gaps by empirically analysing how and to what extent the Norwegian regime governing the relationship between the oil and fishery industries along the Norwegian coast helps reduce conflict levels and resolve the conflicts that nevertheless arise. The article builds on both regime theory and conflict resolution theory to analyse its institutional design and effects, posing two research questions: First, what is the institutional design of the Norwegian oil and fisheries coexistence regime? Second: to what extent does the regime reduce the conflict potential and contribute towards conflict resolution?