ABSTRACT

Do international organizations really do what their creators intend them to do? In the past century the number of international organizations (lOs) has increased exponentially, and we have a variety of vigorous theories to explain why they have been created. Most of these theories explain 10 creation as a response to problems of incomplete information, transaction costs, and other barriers to Pareto efficiency and welfare improvement for their members. Research flowing from these theories, however, has paid little attention to how lOs actually behave after they are created. Closer scrutiny would reveal that many lOs stray from the efficiency goals these theories impute and that many lOs exercise power autonomously in ways unintended and unanticipated by states at their creation. Understanding how this is so requires a reconsideration of lOs and what they do.