However, there is considerable potential for conflict among states about how to address global environmental problems. A more complex variant occurs when a country believes that the global community is willing to induce its cooperation with various types of pay-offs. In order to secure compliance from non-cooperating countries, the most likely route is to use trade restrictions and privileges. In other cases, the majority of countries may simply feel that it is not worth the effort to gain cooperation and will simply absorb the additional costs among themselves. Military force is not likely to be useful in most cases because of the diffuse source of the problem and the likely judgment that the loss of life would not be worth the benefit gained.
Some resources naturally cross state borders.
An important example is water. About 200 river basins are shared by two or more countries. Shared watersheds comprise about 47 percent of the global land area and more than 60 percent of the area on the continents of Africa, Asia, and South America. However, the fact remains that the strongest, most clever, and most advantageously positioned countries can claim and use the resource with little concern for the impacts on others. The outlook for agreements to share water is not particularly good.