A review of the U.S. invasive species policy mix: Questioning the prospect of an integrated regime

By some accounts, invasive species pose the second greatest threat to global biodiversity after habitat destruction. In addition to their ecological impacts, invasive species cause a wide range of economic and social damages. In recent years, scholars and policy officials have called for recalibration of U.S. invasive species policy, with some advocating a tightly integrated policy regime addressing a broad spectrum of activity, including predictive assessment of invasion pathways, prevention of introduction and spread, control of established populations, eradication of selected populations, and establishment of high‐level coordination bodies. In this paper, I draw upon the policy integration literature and apply a regime construct to review the proposition that the existing mix of U.S. invasive species policies can and should be more tightly integrated. By way of conclusion, I suggest that the current policy mix is not exhausted and recommend a program evaluation process framed to characterize and assess factors and conditions that might influence the comparative effectiveness of strategic alternatives to integration, such as coping and taming.