1. INTERNATIONAL REGIMES
Paola Martinez Torres
I43017

2. TABLE OF CONTENT Definition Introduction Nature of Regimes
Why is international regimes important to the study of I.R?
Competing theories of regime formation
Conclusion
Questions

3. REGIME DEFINITION
Krasner (1983) – Regimes are sets of implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a giving area of international relations.

4. INTRODUCTION
20th century regimes became a global phenomenon, with states tangled together by a complex sets of rules and institutions that regulated IR around the world.
Realists – COORDINATION
Liberal institutionalists – COLLABORATION
Regimes = product of rational self-interested actors.
Regime theorists are located within two school of thought: REALISM and LIBERALISM.

5. Liberal institutionalists
Liberal institutionalist vs. Realist approaches to the analysis of Regimes
Realists
Liberal institutionalists
Common assumptions
1- Regimes enable states to coordinate.
1- Regimes enable states to collaborate.
1- States operate in an anarchic international system.
2- Regimes generate differential benefits for states.
2- Regimes promote the common good.
2- States are rational and unitary actors.
3- Power is the central feature of regime formation and survival.
3- Regimes flourish best when promoted and maintained by a benign hegemon.
3- States are units responsible for stablishing regimes.
4- The nature of world order depends on the underlying principles and norms of regimes.
4- Regimes promote globalization and liberal world order.
4- Regimes are stablished on the basis of cooperation in the international system.
5- Regimes promote international order.

6. WHY DID IR THEORISTS FOCUS ON REGIME FORMATION IN THE 1970S?
Growing awareness of both USA and Soviet Union roles of HEGEMONIES after he 2nd WW.
In the 70s the capacity of the USA to maintain its hegemonic status was in doubt = interest in regimes development.
USA losing interest in the formation of new INTERNATIONAL REGIMES.
Liberalists concerns – loss of American power and inability of USA to forge a consensus around a set of solutions to environmental problems
Realists concerns – growing conflict of interests between the developed and developing world..

7. THE NATURE OF REGIMES
Conceptualizing Regimes – definition and typology of regimes
Defining Regimes - Stephen Krasner early 1980s – regime is more than a set of rules; it presupposes quite a high level of institutionalization.
Example of a Regime – General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
- Originally and agreement drawn up n 1947 reflecting the belief that it was necessary to stablish an organization that would be responsible for the regulation of international trade.

8. Four defining elements of Regime:
Principles are represented by coherent bodies of theoretical statements about how the world works
Norms specify general standards of behavior and identify the rights and obligations o states.
Rules operate at a lower level of generality than principles and norms, and they are often designed to reconcile conflicts which may exist between the principles and norms.
Decision-making procedures identify specific prescriptions for behavior – the system of voting, for example, which will regularly change as a regime is consolidated and extended

9. Globalization and International Regimes
Classifying Regimes – Typology of regimes: two dimensions (Levy et al. 1995).
Vertical dimension: highlights the formality of a regime – highly formalized agreements, or informal agreements between states stablished on the basis of precedence.
Horizontal dimension: states are expect or anticipated that their behavior will be constrained by their accession to an implicit or explicit set of agreements.
Globalization and International Regimes
Globalization on Regimes - positive aspects
Globalization on Regimes - negative aspects
Regime theorists believe that SURVIVAL depends on our capacity to regulate global activity by means of regime

10. Example: Concert of Europe/Vienna System (Vienna Congress).
Security Regimes:
20th century phenomenon – permitting states to scape from security dilemma.
Regular attempts to stablish full-blown security regimes – however only started to proliferate during the 20th century, after the onset of the cold war.
Effectiveness of these regimes often questioned.
Example: Concert of Europe/Vienna System (Vienna Congress).

11. Environmental Regimes:
Importance attached to environmental regimes has steadily risen.
Global warming, damage to the ozone layer etc. are the issues that have attacked the most public attention - regimes have been established in a wide range of areas in an attempt to protect the global environment.
Growing sense that governments are doing too little, too late.
Example: the Ozone regime (1985, Vienna Convention/1987, Montreal Protocol).

12. Economic Regimes: Example: WTO.
Regimes in the economic arena are more firmly entrenched than those in other areas.
Regimes established after the Second World War reflect the determined effort made by USA to consolidate a set of regimes built upon liberal principles, wishing to stablish a regime on free trade principles – GATT, now WTO created to achieve this goal.
Example: WTO.

13. WHY IS INTERNATIONAL REGIMES IMPORTANT TO THE STUDY OF I.R?
The study of international regimes has been an important part of international relations because in essence, the study of regimes is an effort to understand the means and conditions under which states cooperate with one another.
International cooperation is perhaps the central issue for international relations. Studies of regimes focus on trying to understand how regimes are formed and transformed, as well as their influence on the behavior of states.

14. COMPETING THEORIES OF REGIME FORMATION
The Liberal Institutional approach
Regimes help to overcome the problem of anarchy
Analogy between economic market and international system – both are constituted by anarchic structures:
PUBILC GOODS underproduced
PUBLIC BADS overproduced
Interaction between two actors, each only with two possible strategies – cooperative/competitive – and so strategic interaction involves four possible outcomes = PRISONER'S DILEMMA

15. States fail to pursue collaborative strategies and, pursue competitive rather than collaboration because they expect the other members of the anarchic system to pursue competitive strategies – leading to market failure.
Prisoner’s Dilemma – explains why anarchy inhibits collaboration, but also indicates that states acknowledge the advantages of collaboration.
The shadow of the future – the game will be played on future occasions it becomes worthwhile taking a risk and perusing a collaborative strategy in order to produce the optimal outcome.
Liberal institutionalists have increasingly focused on factors that will strengthen RECIPROCITY in the system.

16. The Realist approach
Regimes form, in situations when uncoordinated strategies interact to produce suboptimal outcomes.
Balance of power – states use of power to sustain a regime that promote its own interests
States wishing to form a regime confront the problem of coordination - BATTLE OF THE SEXES
Focus on the possibility of failing to coordinate strategies with consequence that a mutually desired goal is unintentionally missed.
Realists argue that this line of analysis helps understand why states might conform to a regime while wising to change the underlying principles.

17. CONCLUSION
International regimes are important features of the international system and both realists and liberal institutionalists agree upon that. However they reach different conclusions about the circumstances n which regimes emerge.
The implication of power for both approaches also diverge.
Introduction of the distinctions between collaborative and coordination games into the regime literature:
Prisoner's Dilemma
Battle of the Sexes
However they represented mutually incompatible approaches to regime formation.

18. ? QUESTIONS ?
How both approaches - realists and liberal institutionalists - complement and differ each other?
What are the elements that define a Regime?
How are regimes different from an organization?

19. THANKYOU FOR LISTENING!