PS 420/520International Organization

Prof. Ronald B. Mitchell

Expected Learning Outcomes• Understand how the political structure of international problems varies across the

issues of security, trade, human rights, and environment. Recognize the ways in which the power and incentives that lead states to engage in behaviors that cause collective problems make some problems harder to resolve than others.

• Recognize the relationship between problem structure characteristics and the design of the international institutions that states create. Understand why certain design features will never be used to address certain types of problems. Know the difference between regulatory, procedural, programmatic, and generative regimes, when they are likely to be adopted, and the different core elements of any international institution.

• Be able to assess whether an international institution has influenced state behavior and identify the key factors that make it more or less likely that an international institution will succeed in doing so.

• Demonstrate critical thinking and communication skills, including the use of counterfactuals, through midterms and a final exam. Show the ability to using empirical evidence to assess theoretical claims about the design and effectiveness of international institutions.

Why do States Organize?

• See problems and want to solve them• See opportunities and want to seize them• Find themselves in anarchic context, with no

government they can call on to do this for them so must create some form of governance, even if not government

Three major elements ofInternational Organization

• The Structure of International Problems– What types of problems do states face/how do they vary? – What makes some harder to resolve than others?

• International Institutions and Other Responses– How do states organize to mitigate those problems? – How does design of institutions vary?

• Effects of International Institutions: – Why do some institutions "work" while others fail?

AND how do the answers to thesequestions differ by issue areas?

How International Governance Differs from Domestic Governance

• Anarchy makes governance surprising– No constraints on behavior (no government)– Atomistic actors (no altruism)

• Domestic vs. international governance– Collective identity– Establishing rules– Expectation of compliance– Enforcement

International OrganizationSvs. International Organization

• International OrganizationS – Established by national governments – Bureaucratic entities– Have physical locations, permanent staff, etc.– Thousands in the world today. Examples?

• International Organization– Efforts at governance– Sometimes leads to formal international organizations– But need not – sometimes involves treaties without

organizations

Definition ofRegimes / Institutions

• “Sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors' expectations converge in a given area of international relations” (Krasner, 1982, 186)

• “Pattern … of activity” or “particular human-constructed arrangement, formally or informally organized” (Keohane, 1988, 382}

Institutions, Regimes, Organization

• Will use terms interchangeably• Effects– Joiners necessarily better off than not joining – But not necessarily better off than no institution – And non-joiners may not be better off at all– Key question is what type of organization

• Necessity not mother of invention in IO• Non-state actors matter more and more

Reading for the course

• How to read the readings• Readings due BEFORE class for which they are

assigned• Why I chose Young• What you should get from:– Shanks et al.

• Why do states join IOs

– Krasner’s 2 questions• Impact of regimes on related behavior & outcomes• Relationship of basic causal variables to regimes

General

• Walk through syllabus• Problem Structure• Institutional Design• Institutional Effects and Effectiveness

Office Hours

• PLC-921• Tu/Th 11:30-1:00• Those who sign up at door given priority but

walk-ins always welcome

Teaching Learning Center services available to students

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