Theories of international regimes

TLDR

International regimes have become a central focus of empirical and theoretical research in international relations over the past decade. The article critically reviews the regimes literature and proposes a research agenda that incorporates domestic politics and interdependence insights. The authors survey competing definitions of regimes, propose dimensions for regime variation, and analyze structural, game‑theoretic, functional, and cognitive approaches to regime analysis. They conclude that the regimes literature largely neglects domestic politics.

Abstract

Over the last decade, international regimes have become a major focus of empirical research and theoretical debate within international relations. This article provides a critical review of this literature. We survey contending definitions of regimes and suggest dimensions along which regimes vary over time or across cases; these dimensions might be used to operationalize “regime change.” We then examine four approaches to regime analysis: structural, game-theoretic, functional, and cognitive. We conclude that the major shortcoming of the regimes literature is its failure to incorporate domestic politics adequately. We suggest a research program that begins with the central insights of the interdependence literature which have been ignored in the effort to construct “systemic” theory.