ABSTRACT
The disagreement of the 1980s and 1990s about whether institutions matter or not has given over to a disagreement – or to much less agreement – over the last decade about exactly how institutions affect states’ behavior (Martin and Simmons 2001: 43). Thus, the preoccupation of scholars to respond mostly to the realist premise that institutions are epiphenomenal and they can only serve as useful leverages in the hands of the most powerful states to promote their preconceived national interests1 has been replaced by rational (mainly neo-liberal institutionalist) and social constructivist accounts about how institutions have affected states’ behavior.
