Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:32:21.734Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Multilateralism with small and large numbers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Miles Kahler
Get access

Extract

Multilateralism, international governance of the “many,” was defined by the United States after 1945 in terms of certain principles, particularly opposition to bilateral and discriminatory arrangements that were believed to enhance the leverage of the powerful over the weak and to increase international conflict. Postwar multilateralism also expressed an impulse to universality (John Ruggie's “generalized organizing principles”) that implied relatively low barriers to participation in these arrangements. A ticket of admission was always required, whether acceding to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) or joining the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Nevertheless, the price of that ticket was not set so high that less powerful or less wealthy states could not hope to participate.

Type
Symposium: Multilateralism
Information
International Organization , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , Summer 1992 , pp. 681 - 708
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. This aspect of multilateralism is described by Richard Gardner in Sterling-Dollar Diplomacy (New York: Columbia University Press, 1980), pp. 42–47 and 56–62Google Scholar.

2. See John Gerard Ruggie, “Multilateralism: The Anatomy of an Institution,” in this issue of IO.

3. See, for example, Steve Weber, “Shaping the Postwar Balance of Power: Multilateralism in NATO,” in this issue of IO.

4. Olson, Mancur, The Logic of Collective Action (New York: Schocken, 1968), p. 35Google Scholar; emphasis in the original text.

5. Ibid., p. 48.

6. See Taylor, Michael, The Possibility of Cooperation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987)Google Scholar; and Hardin, Russell, Collective Action (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982), chap. 3Google Scholar.

7. Hardin, , Collective Action, p. 43Google Scholar.

8. This aspect of certain collective goods is a key assumption in Chamberlin's critique of Olson. See John Chamberlin, “Provision of Collective Goods as a Function of Group Size,” in Barry, Brian and Hardin, Russell, eds., Rational Man and Irrational Society? (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, 1982), pp. 197–212Google Scholar, and the comments by Barry and Hardin, p. 196. Some of these collective goods also resemble the lumpy goods described by Taylor, in The Possibility of Cooperation, pp. 51–53Google Scholar.

9. Taylor, , The Possibility of Cooperation, p. 12Google Scholar; emphasis in the original text.

10. Oye, Kenneth, “Explaining Cooperation Under Anarchy,” in Oye, Kenneth, ed., Cooperation Under Anarchy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986), p. 19Google Scholar.

11. Ibid., pp. 20–21.

12. Ibid., p. 21.

13. Hardin, , Collective Action, p. 228Google Scholar.

14. Snidal, Duncan, “The Limits of Hegemonic Stability Theory,” International Organization 39 (Autumn 1985), p. 612CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15. Mastanduno, Michael, “Trade as a Strategic Weapon: American and Alliance Export Control Policy in the Early Postwar Period,” International Organization 42 (Winter 1988), pp. 121–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16. Weber, “Shaping the Postwar Balance of Power.”

17. Milward, Alan S., The Reconstruction of Western Europe, 1945–51(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), p. 169Google Scholar.

18. For an account of these years, see Miles Kahler, “The United States and the International Monetary Fund: Declining Influence or Declining Interest?” in Karns, Margaret P. and Mingst, Karen A., eds., The United States and Multilateral Institutions (Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1990), pp. 94–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19. Eichengreen, Barry, “Hegemonic Stability Theories of the International Monetary System,” in Cooper, Richard N. et al. , eds., Can Nations Agree? (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1987), p. 287Google Scholar.

20. See Patterson, Gardner, Discrimination in International Trade: The Policy Issues, 1945–1965 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966), pp. 54–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar. These agreements concerned not only East-West trade but also a substantial part of the trade within Western Europe and Latin America. By 1963, they had been whittled down to agreements that concerned state trading countries.

21. Winham, Gilbert R., International Trade and the Tokyo Round (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986), p. 34Google Scholar.

22. Ibid., p. 65.

23. Ibid., p. 376.

24. Patterson, , Discrimination in International Trade, pp. 14–15Google Scholar.

25. On the Lomé Convention, see Ravenhill, John, Collective Clientelism: The Lomé Conventions and North-South Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1985)Google Scholar.

26. Patterson, , Discrimination in International Trade, pp. 140–41Google Scholar*.

27. On the evolution of the textile trade regime, see Aggarwal, Vinod K., Liberal Protectionism: The International Politics of Organized Textile Trade (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985)Google Scholar.

28. Patterson, , Discrimination in International Trade, p. 388Google Scholar.

29. Aggarwal, , Liberal Protectionism, pp. 78–80Google Scholar.

30. Weintraub, Sidney, “Selective Trade Liberalization and Restriction,” in Preeg, Ernest H., ed., Hard Bargaining Ahead: U.S. Trade Policy and Developing Countries (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, 1985), p. 170Google Scholar.

31. Patterson, , Discrimination in International Trade, p. 390Google Scholar.

32. This interesting history is recounted by Riches, Cromwell A. in Majority Rule in International Organization (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1940), pp. 267–72Google Scholar.

33. Hollick, Ann L., U.S. Foreign Policy and the Law of the Sea (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981), pp. 164–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34. Buzan, Barry, Seabed Politics (New York: Praeger, 1976), p. 134Google Scholar.

35. Ibid., pp. 99–100.

36. Baradi, Mohamed El and Gavin, Cloe, Crowded Agendas, Crowded Rooms: Institutional Arrangements at UNCLOS III (New York: United Nations Institute for Training and Research, 1981), pp. 4–6Google Scholar.

37. See Hollick, , U.S. Foreign Policy and the Law of the Sea, p. 282Google Scholar; Buzan, , Seabed Politics, pp. 216–18Google Scholar; Miles, Edward, “The Structure and Effects of the Decision Process in the Seabed Committee and the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea,” International Organization 31 (Spring 1977), pp. 180–85Google Scholar; and Sebenius, James K., Negotiating the Law of the Sea (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984), p. 13Google Scholar.

38. Hollick, , U.S. Foreign Policy and the Law of the Sea, pp. 378–79Google Scholar.

39. Miles, , “Structure and Effects of the Decision Process in the Seabed Committee and the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea,” p. 232Google Scholar.

40. Buzan, , Seabed Politics, pp. 138–39Google Scholar.

41. Baradi, El and Gavin, , Crowded Agendas, Crowded Rooms, p. 19Google Scholar.

42. Sebenius, , Negotiating the Law of the Sea, p. 209Google Scholar.

43. See Hollick, , U.S. Foreign Policy and the Law of the Sea, p. 304Google Scholar; and Buzan, , Seabed Politics, p. 264Google Scholar.

44. Hollick, , U.S. Foreign Policy and the Law of the Sea, pp. 299–300 and 378Google Scholar.

45. Sebenius, , Negotiating the Law of the Sea, p. 26Google Scholar.

46. Hollick, , U.S. Foreign Policy and the Law of the Sea, p. 363Google Scholar.

47. Sebenius, , Negotiating the Law of the Sea, p. 91Google Scholar.

48. For an account and documentation of the issues in the Uruguay Round and the early phases of the negotiations, see Golt, Sidney, The GATT Negotiations, 1986–90: Origins, Issues and Prospects (London: British-North American Committee, 1988)Google Scholar.

49. For an excellent account of the negotiations leading to the Uruguay Round, see Hamilton, Colleen and Whalley, John, “Coalitions in the Uruguay Round,” working paper no. 2751, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, Mass., 1988Google Scholar.

50. Winham, Gilbert R., “The Prenegotiation Phase of the Uruguay Round,” in Stein, Janice Gross, ed., Getting to the Table: The Processes of International Prenegotiation (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), p. 54Google Scholar.

51. See Hamilton, and Whalley, , “Coalitions in the Uruguay Round,” pp. 17–18Google Scholar.

52. Ibid.

53. See ibid., p. 18; and Winham, “The Prenegotiation Phase of the Uruguay Round,” p. 59.

54. Winham, , “The Prenegotiation Phase of the Uruguay Round,” pp. 60–61Google Scholar.

55. Ibid., p. 65.

56. Hamilton and Whalley, “Coalitions in the Uruguay Round.”

57. See Higgott, Richard A. and Cooper, Andrew Fenton, “Middle Power Leadership and Coalition Building: Australia, the Cairns Group, and the Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations,” International Organization 44 (Autumn 1990), p. 601CrossRefGoogle Scholar. This source provides a detailed account of the history and activities of the Cairns Group.

58. On other groups, see ibid., p. 591; and Hamilton and Whalley, “Coalitions in the Uruguay Round,” pp. 32–36.

59. In “Middle Power Leadership and Coalition Building,” Higgott and Fenton argue that the Cairns Group has played such a role. In “The Prenegotiation Phase of the Uruguay Round,” however, Winham argues that the great powers have continued to be predominant in the bargaining.

60. Hamilton and Whalley, “Coalitions in the Uruguay Round.”

61. See Sebenius, James K., “Crafting a Winning Coalition: Negotiating a Regime to Control Global Warming,” in Benedick, Richard Elliot et al. , eds., Greenhouse Warming: Negotiating a Global Regime (Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute, 1991), p. 79Google Scholar; and Skolnikoff, Eugene B., “The Policy Gridlock on Global Warming,” Foreign Policy 79 (Summer 1990), pp. 84–85Google Scholar.

62. Benedick, Richard Elliot, Ozone Diplomacy: New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991), p. 99Google Scholar.

63. Ibid., pp. 6, 69, and 101–2.

64. Ibid., pp. 69 and 74.

65. See Benedick, Richard Elliot, “Ozone Diplomacy,” Issues in Science and Technology 6 (Fall 1989), pp. 49–50Google Scholar; and Sebenius, , “Crafting a Winning Coalition,” pp. 80 and 91Google Scholar.

66. As Benedick, notes in Ozone Diplomacy, p. 150Google Scholar, the threat posed to the Montreal regime was real. By 1989, three of the prospective largest consumers of CFCs had ratified the Montreal protocol, but only fourteen developing countries had become parties.

67. This account is drawn from the excellent narrative presented by Benedick in Ozone Diplomacy, pp. 178–89.

68. For one pessimistic view of the possibilities for negotiating a regime of global limits on greenhouse gases, see Grubb, Michael, “The Greenhouse Effect: Negotiating Targets,” International Affairs 66 (01 1990), pp. 67–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

69. Sebenius, , “Crafting a Winning Coalition,” pp. 90–91Google Scholar.

70. See Stevens, William K., “At Meeting, U.S. Is Alone on Global Warming,” The New York Times, 10 09 1991, pp. Bl and B8Google Scholar.

71. Shepsle, Kenneth, cited by McCubbins, Mathew D. and Sullivan, Terry in Congress: Structure and Policy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 315Google Scholar.

72. On some of the controversies concerning voting during the 1970s, see Zamora, Stephen, “Voting in International Economic Organizations,” American Journal of International Law 74 (07 1980), pp. 583–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73. See Jenks, C. Wilfred, “Unanimity, the Veto, Weighted Voting, Special and Simple Majorities and Consensus as Modes of Decision in International Organisations,” in Cambridge Essays in International Law (London: Stevens & Sons, 1965)Google Scholar.

74. On the Bretton Woods organizations, see Lister, Frederick K., Decision-Making Strategies for International Organizations: The IMF Model (Denver, Colo.: University of Denver, 1984)Google Scholar; Zamora, , “Voting in International Economic Organizations,” pp. 576–78Google Scholar; and Gold, Joseph, “Weighted Voting Power: Some Limits and Some Problems,” American Journal of International Law 68 (10 1974), pp. 687–708CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

75. On consensus decision making, see Kaufman, John, Conference Diplomacy: An Introductory Analysis (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff, 1988), pp. 24–25Google Scholar; and Jenks, , “Unanimity, the Veto, Weighted Voting, Special and Simple Majorities and Consensus,” pp. 55–62Google Scholar.

76. See, for example, Kiewiet, D. Roderick and McCubbins, Mathew D., The Logic of Delegation: Congressional Parties and the Appropriations Process (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

77. Sebenius, , Negotiating the Law of the Sea, p. 209Google Scholar.

78. Sand, Peter H., “Preserving the Global Environment: The Challenge of Shared Leadership,” background paper prepared for the American Assembly, Arden House, Harriman, N.Y., 1990, p. 19Google Scholar.

79. Riches, , Majority Rule in International Organization, p. 106Google Scholar.