Living with a reluctant hegemon: explaining european responses to us unilateralism

The United States has achieved an unrivalled power position in the post-ColdWar world, yet at the same time has been increasingly reluctant to accept newmultilateral treaty commitments. Living with a Reluctant Hegemon sheds new light on the long-standing theoretical debate about the relationship between hegemony and international cooperation. Living with a Reluctant Hegemon addresses a striking puzzle in contemporary world politics: why have European states responded in varying ways to recent unilateralist tendencies in US foreign policy? The United States played a hegemonic leadership role in building the post-war multilateral order but has been reluctant to embrace many recent multilateral treaty initiatives championed by its traditional European allies, such as the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, theInternational Criminal Court, or the verification protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention. European responses to US objections, however, have varied across these different transatlantic controversies. In some cases, European decision-makers watered down or abandoned contested treaties, whereas in otherdisputes, they opted for regime-building excluding the US, that is, for a strategy of non-hegemonic cooperation.How Europeans choose to deal with the 'reluctant hegemon' has critical implications for how key global challenges are addressed - and yet, the striking variation of their responses has been largely overlooked in a scholarly debate fixated on understanding US unilateralism. This book fills this important gap bystudying European strategic choices in five recent transatlantic conflicts over multilateral agreements. It argues that neither realist accounts of global power dynamics nor rationalinstitutionalist models of cooperation can fully explain why Europeans opt for non-hegemonic cooperation in some cases but not others. To resolve this puzzle, we need to combine rationalist propositions with constructivist insights about normative constraints on states' institutional choices. Bydeveloping such an integrated model, the book sheds new light on the long-standing theoretical debate about the relationship between hegemony and international cooperation. INDICE: Acknowledgements Table of Contents List of Tables, Figures, and Maps List of Abbreviations Part I: Theoretical Framework Introduction The Power Puzzle The Argument Part II: Case Studies Case Study: Anti-Personnel LandminesCase Study: The International Criminal Court Case Study: The Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change Case study: Small Arms and Light Weapons Case Study: Biological Weapons Verification Conclusion Appendix I: Methodology Appendix II: List of Interviews References

• ISBN: 978-0-19-960862-1
• Editorial: Oxford University
• Encuadernacion: Cartoné
• Páginas: 272
• Fecha Publicación: 22/12/2011
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés