ABSTRACT

This chapter explores how to evaluate the varying response participation and resistance of democracies and non-democracies towards treaty-based regimes. The United States has led the way in the creation of transnational governance mechanisms, but it has displayed little inclination to join the very same regimes that it had created. The people's republic of China (PRC), on the other hand, has shown determination to participate only in those regimes that could potentially enhance its international image and improve its domestic economic condition. The objective of this project is to explain how and why state behavior differs in supporting and resisting multilateral treaty regimes by focusing on domestic political structure and internal social norms. International security regimes are more difficult to establish and secure compliance because states are extremely wary about ceding sovereignty over security matters to international institutions. Prevailing international relations theories, especially the neorealist and neoliberal institutionalist theories have not fully explicated this interesting transformation in interstate relations.