4.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Even as they engage in ongoing international competition, states also find ways to cooperate to mitigate the severity of their competition or address problems of mutual concern. This cooperation often takes the form of international institutions, including agreements, treaties, and originations. International security institutions form an important, and often understudied, subset of the broader world of international institutions and organizations. This course will consider the analytic questions of why, when, and how states cooperate on matters of international security, as well as the effects of that cooperation on their preferences and behaviors. It will on focus on several drivers of cooperation, including great power interest, domestic political conditions, and technology. Next it will address issues of compliance – do states follow through on their commitments? What are the implications of violations? The course will also consider variation in the design of institutions, including the role of secretariats, members, monitoring and verification arrangements, and flexibility provisions. Substantive cases will cover agreements such as nuclear weapons treaties, conventional arms limitations, political declarations, weapons bans, post-conflict peace agreements, as well as regional security organizations in Europe and Asia.