After Hegemony : Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy

by Keohane, Robert O.

• ISBN13: 9780691022284
• ISBN10: 0691022283
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1984-09-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

This book is a comprehensive study of cooperation among the advanced capitalist countries. Can cooperation persist without the dominance of a single power, such as the United States after World War II? To answer this pressing question, Robert Keohane analyzes the institutions, or "international regimes," through which cooperation has taken place in the world political economy and describes the evolution of these regimes as American hegemony has eroded. Refuting the idea that the decline of hegemony makes cooperation impossible, he views international regimes not as weak substitutes for world government but as devices for facilitating decentralized cooperation among egoistic actors. In the preface the author addresses the issue of cooperation after the end of the Soviet empire and with the renewed dominance of the United States in security matters, as well as recent scholarship on cooperation.

Author Biography

Robert O. Keohane is Professor of International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.

Table of Contents

Preface to the 2005 Edition	p. ix
Preface	p. xxi
Questions and Concepts
Realism, Institutionalism, and Cooperation	p. 5
Politics, Economics, and the International System	p. 18
Hegemony in the World Political Economy	p. 31
Theories of Cooperation and International Regimes
Cooperation and International Regimes	p. 49
Rational-Choice and Functional Explanations	p. 65
A Functional Theory of International Regimes	p. 85
Bounded Rationality and Redefinitions of Self-Interest	p. 110
Hegemony and Cooperation in Practice
Hegmonic Cooperation in the Postwar Era	p. 135
The Incomplete Decline of Hegemonic Regimes	p. 182
The Consumers' Oil Regime, 1974-81	p. 217
Conclusion
The Value of Institutions and the Costs of Flexibility	p. 243
Bibliography	p. 260
Index	p. 281
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