The Causal Mechanisms of Interaction between International Institutions

This article develops a conceptual framework for the systematic analysis of the interaction between international institutions as a first step towards building a theory of international interaction. It examines how international institutions may exert causal influence on each other's development and effectiveness and suggests that four general causal mechanisms can elucidate the distinct routes through which influence travels from one institution to another. Institutional interaction can thus rely on transfer of knowledge, commitments established under an institution, behavioural effects of an institution, and functional linkage of the ultimate governance targets of the institutions involved. The article also puts forward hypotheses about the likely effects of specific types of institutional interaction for governance within the international system. The causal mechanisms and types of interaction are mutually exclusive models that help analyse real-world interaction situations. They may also serve as a basis for the systematic analysis of more complex interaction situations.

[1]  Andreas Hasenclever,et al.  Theories of International Regimes , 1997 .

[2]  O. Stokke.  Governing high seas fisheries : the interplay of global and regional regimes , 2001 .

[3]  Sophie Meunier,et al.  Nested and overlapping regimes in the transatlantic banana trade dispute , 2006 .

[4]  T. Risse.  “Let's Argue!”: Communicative Action in World Politics , 2000, International Organization.

[5]  S. Oberthür,et al.  Interplay: Exploring Institutional Interaction , 2008 .

[6]  T. Schelling,et al.  The Strategy of Conflict. , 1961 .

[7]  S. Oberthür,et al.  Exploring regime interaction: a framework of analysis , 2004 .

[8]  R. Whitman.  NATO, the EU and ESDP: an emerging division of labour? , 2003 .

[9]  G. K. Rosendal.  Impacts of Overlapping International Regimes: The Case of Biodiversity , 2001 .

[10]  S. Oberthür,et al.  Exploring Regime Interaction , 2004 .

[11]  P. Haas.  Introduction: epistemic communities and international policy coordination , 1992, International Organization.

[12]  R. Eckersley.  The Big Chill: The WTO and Multilateral Environmental Agreements , 2004, Global Environmental Politics.

[13]  Mark Gould,et al.  Nuts and bolts for the social sciences , 1991 .

[14]  P. Hedström,et al.  Social mechanisms : an analytical approach to social theory , 1999 .

[15]  Samuel B. Bacharach,et al.  When Knowledge is Power: Three Models of Change in International Organizations. , 1991 .

[16]  Olav Schram Stokke,et al.  Managing straddling stocks: the interplay of global and regional regimes , 2000 .

[17]  O. Young.  Governance Without Government: The effectiveness of international institutions: hard cases and critical variables , 1992 .

[18]  K. Alter.  The European Union's Legal System and Domestic Policy: Spillover or Backlash? , 2000, International Organization.

[19]  Walter Carlsnaes.  The Agency-Structure Problem in Foreign Policy Analysis , 1992 .

[20]  Robert O. Keohane,et al.  Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. , 1995 .

[21]  Walter Mattli,et al.  Setting International Standards: Technological Rationality or Primacy of Power? , 2003 .

[22]  Gerard Delanty.  The Foundations of Social Theory , 2009 .

[23]  D. Snidal.  3. The Politics of Scope: Endogenous Actors, Heterogeneity and Institutions , 1994 .

[24]  Peter M. Haas,et al.  Institutions for the Earth. Sources of Effective International Environmental Protection. , 1996 .

[25]  Maximilian Weber,et al.  Die "Objektivität" sozialwissenschaftlicher undsozialpolitischer Erkenntnis , 1904 .

[26]  N. Dickson.  The Big Chill , 2009, Nursing times.

[27]  A. George,et al.  Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences , 2005 .

[28]  D. Victor,et al.  The Regime Complex for Plant Genetic Resources , 2004, International Organization.

[29]  Adrienne Héritier,et al.  The accommodation of diversity in European policy‐making and its outcomes: Regulatory policy as a patchwork , 1996 .

[30]  Arild Underdal,et al.  Regime consequences : methodological challenges and research strategies , 2004 .

[31]  Duncan Snidal,et al.  The Rational Design of International Institutions , 2001, International Organization.

[32]  Hermann E. Ott,et al.  The Kyoto protocol : international climate policy for the 21st century , 1999 .

[33]  Jon Birger Skjærseth.  PROTECTING THE NORTH-EAST ATLANTIC: ONE PROBLEM, THREE INSTITUTIONS , 2002 .

[34]  J. Ruggie.  Multilateralism Matters: The Theory and Praxis of an Institutional Form , 1993 .

[35]  Kenneth W. Abbott,et al.  Hard and Soft Law in International Governance , 2000, International Organization.

[36]  J. Golub.  The Institutional Dimensions of Environmental Change: Fit, Interplay, and Scale. By Oran R. Young. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. 221p. $55.00 cloth, $21.95 paper , 2003, Perspectives on Politics.

[37]  A. Underdal.  Methodological Challenges in the Study of Regime Effectiveness , 2004 .

[38]  James D. Fearon,et al.  Counterfactuals and Hypothesis Testing in Political Science , 1991, World Politics.

[39]  Eric Tistounet.  The Future of UN Human Rights Treaty Monitoring: The problem of overlapping among different treaty bodies , 2000 .

[40]  Sebastian Oberthür,et al.  Institutional interaction in global environmental governance : synergy and conflict among international and EU policies , 2006 .

[41]  Alexander Wendt,et al.  The agent-structure problem in international relations theory , 1987, International Organization.

[42]  S. Diamond,et al.  Human rights, labor rights, and international trade , 1996 .

[43]  R. Keohane.  Neoliberal Institutionalism: A Perspective on World Politics , 2020 .

[44]  J. Paavola.  Institutions for Environmental AID: Pitfalls and Promise , 1997 .

[45]  T. Schelling.  Social Mechanisms: Social mechanisms and social dynamics , 1998 .

[46]  Lori Cunniff,et al.  Environmental Regime Effectiveness: Confronting Theory with Evidence, , 2002 .

[47]  L. Helfer.  Forum Shopping for Human Rights , 1999 .

[48]  A. Stein.  Coordination and collaboration: regimes in an anarchic world , 1982, International Organization.

[49]  David G. Victor,et al.  The implementation and effectiveness of international environmental commitments : theory and practice , 1999 .

[50]  O. Stokke.  The Interplay of International Regimes: Putting Effectiveness Theory to Work , 2001 .

[51]  Oran R. Young,et al.  The effectiveness of international environmental regimes : causal connections and behavioral mechanisms , 1999 .

[52]  J. Clapp.  Africa, NGOs, and the International Toxic Waste Trade , 1994 .

[53]  Thomas Bernauer,et al.  The effect of international environmental institutions: how we might learn more , 1995, International Organization.

[54]  Duncan Snidal,et al.  The Game Theory of International Politics , 1985, World Politics.

[55]  M. Levy,et al.  The Study of International Regimes , 1995 .

[56]  James K. Sebenius,et al.  Negotiation arithmetic: adding and subtracting issues and parties , 1983, International Organization.

[57]  Thom Gehring,et al.  Institutional Interaction in Global Environmental Governance: The Case of the Cartagena Protocol and the World Trade Organization , 2006, Global Environmental Politics.

[58]  Thomas M. Gehring.  Die Politik des koordinierten Alleingangs: Schengen und die Abschaffung der Personenkontrollen an den Binnengrenzen der Europäischen Union , 1998 .

[59]  Jeffrey T. Checkel.  The Constructive Turn in International Relations Theory , 1998, World Politics.

[60]  Thom Gehring.  Dynamic International Regimes: Institutions for International Environmental Governance , 1994 .

[61]  Robert O. Keohane,et al.  After Hegemony , 2005 .

[62]  O. Young,et al.  Research Strategies for the Future , 2004 .

[63]  O. Young,et al.  Institutional interplay: Biosafety and trade , 2009 .

[64]  Sebastian Oberthür,et al.  The Kyoto Protocol , 1999 .

[65]  B. Buzan,et al.  The Logic of Anarchy: Neorealism to Structural Realism , 1993 .

[66]  G. Young.  Institutional Linkages in International Society: Polar Perspectives , 1996 .

[67]  P. Hedström,et al.  Social Mechanisms: Social mechanisms: An introductory essay , 1998 .

[68]  Johan P. Olsen,et al.  The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders , 1998, International Organization.

[69]  Robert O. Keohane,et al.  Institutions for environmental aid : pitfalls and promise , 1996 .

[70]  G. Gabbard.  The Big Chill , 1992, Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry.

[71]  S. Oberthür.  Linkages between the Montreal and Kyoto Protocols – Enhancing Synergies between Protecting the Ozone Layer and the Global Climate , 2001 .

[72]  A. S. Yee.  The causal effects of ideas on policies , 1996, International Organization.

[73]  P. Haas.  Policy Knowledge: Epistemic Communities , 2001 .

[74]  Stacy D. Vandeveer,et al.  Mapping Institutional Linkages in European Air Pollution Politics , 2003, Global Environmental Politics.