Lada V. Kochtcheeva received her MS and PhD in Political Science from the University of Oregon. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University. Her current research is inspired by contemporary problems of environmental governance, institutional development, government–society relations and comparative public policy. She has published Comparative Environmental Regulation in the United States and Russia: Institutions, Flexible Instruments, and Governance (New York: SUNY Press, 2008) – which examines political and policy pre-conditions for the replacement of command and control systems with flexible instruments such as incentive programmes, tradeable permits and pollution charges.