Contracting states : sovereign transfers in international relations / Alexander Cooley and Hendrik Spruyt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cooley, Alexander, 1972-

Contributor:

Spruyt, Hendrik, 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sovereignty.

Military bases, American--Foreign countries.

Military bases, American.

Military bases, British--Foreign countries.

Military bases, British.

Regionalism (International organization).

France--Armed Forces--Foreign countries.

France.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (249 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Increasingly today nation-states are entering into agreements that involve the sharing or surrendering of parts of their sovereign powers and often leave the cession of authority incomplete or vague. But until now, we have known surprisingly little about how international actors design and implement these mixed-sovereignty arrangements. Contracting States uses the concept of "incomplete contracts"--agreements that are intentionally ambiguous and subject to future renegotiation--to explain how states divide and transfer their sovereign territory and functions, and demonstrate why some of these arrangements offer stable and lasting solutions while others ultimately collapse. Building on important advances in economics and law, Alexander Cooley and Hendrik Spruyt develop a highly original, interdisciplinary approach and apply it to a broad range of cases involving international sovereign political integration and disintegration. The authors reveal the importance of incomplete contracting in the decolonization of territories once held by Europe and the Soviet Union; U.S. overseas military basing agreements with host countries; and in regional economic-integration agreements such as the European Union. Cooley and Spruyt examine contemporary problems such as the Arab-Israeli dispute over water resources, and show why the international community inadequately prepared for Kosovo's independence. Contracting States provides guidance to international policymakers about how states with equally legitimate claims on the same territory or asset can create flexible, durable solutions and avoid violent conflict.

Contents:

Incomplete sovereignty and international relations

A theory of incomplete contracting and state sovereignty

Severing the ties that bind: sovereign transfers in the shadow of empire

Appendix 3.1. Overseas basing deployments of France and Britain since 1970

Incomplete contracting and the politics of U.S. overseas basing agreements

Incomplete contracting and modalities of regional integration

Further applications and conclusions.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-224) and index.

ISBN:

9786612754609

9781400830657

1400830656

9781282754607

1282754602

9780691137230

0691137234

OCLC:

664572280