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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Political Science

University of Iowa

Selected Works

2008

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Io Mediation Of Interstate Conflicts: Moving Beyond The Global Vs. Regional Dichotomy, Holley Hansen, Sara Mclaughlin Mitchell, Stephen C. Nemeth Apr 2008

Io Mediation Of Interstate Conflicts: Moving Beyond The Global Vs. Regional Dichotomy, Holley Hansen, Sara Mclaughlin Mitchell, Stephen C. Nemeth

Sara McLaughlin Mitchell

Regional and global intergovernmental organizations have grown both in number and scope, yet their role and effectiveness as conflict managers is not fully understood. Previous research efforts tend to categorize organizations solely by the scope of their membership, which obscures important sources of variation in institutional design at both the regional and global levels. International organizations will be more successful conflict managers if they are highly institutionalized, if they have members with homogeneous preferences, and if they have more established democratic members. These hypotheses are evaluated with data on territorial (1816-2001), maritime (1900-2001), and river (1900-2001) claims from the Issue …


Reducing The Effects Of Moral Hazard: Institutional Designs Within International Alliances, Brian Lai Jan 2008

Reducing The Effects Of Moral Hazard: Institutional Designs Within International Alliances, Brian Lai

Brian Lai

What explains the level of commitment within an international military alliance? Specifically, when do alliances choose to adopt active military support for offensive uses of force versus lower levels of commitment? Drawing on the rational design of international institutions literature, this paper argues that the choice of commitment is a conscious effort to address two competing problems. The first is the potential for entrapment. Allies worry that commitments may lead other member states to act in a risky fashion, creating unnecessary conflict. The other problem is the need to demonstrate commitment in order to maximize the bargaining power of the …