ABSTRACT
The last two decades have been marked by a series of episodes in which U.S. commitments to participation in multilateral institutions have been called into question. The difficulties the United States has had with a number of IGOs escalated during the Reagan administration, fueling a debate over whether a “crisis of multilateralism” complemented the general decline of internationalism in U.S. foreign policy. For example, Thomas Hughes (1985-86:587) has suggested, “International institutions are now perceived to be obstacles —not, as in the past, tools-to the promotion of American foreign policy goals. Accordingly, multilateralism has been challenged by global unilateralism.”
