ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses “horizontal interactions” between international institutions. Systemic approaches focus on the relationship among institutions, so that the key variables of interest are located at the macro-level of institutions. Actor-centered approaches, by contrast, see actors as either the independent variable or the dependent variable, locating other variables at the macro-level of institutions. It has been well documented, for example, that state and non-state actors sometimes engage in “forum shopping,” “regime shifting,” and competitive regime creation. Negative spill-overs exist when cooperation in one issue area undermines the pursuit of objectives in another issue area. Adopting a more actor-centric approach, Van de Graaf has argued that the institutional capture of the International Energy Agency by fossil and nuclear energy interests spurred the creation of the International Renewable Energy Agency. A popular hypothesis has been that the World Trade Organization undermines the effectiveness of multilateral environmental agreements by “chilling” the negotiation of environmentally motivated trade-related obligations.
