Theories of International Cooperation and the Primacy of Anarchy : Explaining U.S. International Monetary Policy-Making After Bretton Woods

Argues the state and not markets should be the center of analysis when attempting to explain international cooperation. Challenging the standard liberal explanations for international cooperation in the field of international relations, this book contends that despite numerous efforts and the passage of time, our understanding of the cooperative phenomenon remains woefully inadequate. Sterling-Folker argues that widespread explanatory reliance on what constitutes functionally efficient choices in global interdependence is deductively illogical and empirically unsound. The author's approach for explaining international cooperation is comprised of realist and constructivist insights and places the state, rather than the market, at the center of analysis. A thorough examination of Post-Bretton Woods American monetary policy-making reveals the fundamental flaws of traditional explanations and the superiority of a realist-constructivist alternative to the cooperative phenomenon. We can no longer look upon either liberal cooperation or realism in quite the same way after this book. The exegesis on both of these theories is penetrating, insightful, and imaginative, while the empirical testing is appropriate and quite conclusive. Anyone who wishes to enter into the theoretical conversation in contemporary international relations must read this book. Donald J. Puchala, University of South Carolina Sterling-Folker offers a simply breathtaking account of the flaws inherent in liberal international theory, and how realism is superior as a theory of cooperation. This book will become a major focal point in contemporary scholarly debate about the political consequences of international economic interdependence, and it may play a role in United States policy debate concerning countries such as China as well. Joseph M. Grieco, Duke University Challenging the standard liberal explanations for international cooperation in the field of international relations, this book contends that despite numerous efforts and the passage of time, our understanding of the cooperative phenomenon remains woefully inadequate. Sterling-Folker argues that widespread explanatory reliance on what constitutes functionally efficient choices in global interdependence is deductively illogical and empirically unsound. The author's approach for explaining international cooperation is comprised of realist and constructivist insights and places the state, rather than the market, at the center of analysis. A thorough examination of Post-Bretton Woods American monetary policy-making reveals the fundamental flaws of traditional explanations and the superiority of a realist-constructivist alternative to the cooperative phenomenon.

Author Biography: Jennifer Sterling-Folker is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut.

Annotation. The theories about why governments cooperate with each other obscure more than they reveal about the subject, says Sterling- Folker (political science, U. of Connecticut), and scholars of international relations still cannot adequately understand or explain the phenomenon. She founds her search on the proposition that the systemic environment in which nation states exist, the internal composition and politics of nation states, and the institutions and politics of the US in particular, are actually related to each other and should not be studied in isolation. The study is based on her 1993 doctoral dissertation for the University of Chicago). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR. Jennifer Sterling-folker. Based On The Author's Dissertation (university Of Chicago, 1993). Includes Bibliographical References (p. 269-287) And Index.