Approaches to the study of international regimes: Appraising the power, interest and knowledge based theories
Author(s): Rabindra Mani Pradhan
Abstract: Study of international regimes has garnered attention since the decades of 1980’s. Since then, based on the basic causal factors of state’s behavior i.e. power, interest and knowledge, IR scholarship has tried to define and theorise international regime. This paper goes through the literatures that are dealing with the theories of international regimes and presents a review of them. An appraisal of this sort is necessary as it allows us to classify the state of knowledge that has been accumulated, identify limitations and suggest possible improvements. This paper suggests that none of the theories are individually sufficient to understand international regimes. Though limited however such theories enhance our understanding of international regimes. Secondly, all the theories of international regime are statist in nature and measure the effectiveness of international regime in terms of the compliance of the actors with the regime. Such understanding fails to highlight the purpose of regime which is also to solve the issue problems for which the regime came into being. Therefore, while achieving state cooperation for an issue is one concern for international regime, a successful international regime will be the one which solves the issue problem and not just achieves cooperation between states.
Rabindra Mani Pradhan. Approaches to the study of international regimes: Appraising the power, interest and knowledge based theories. Int J Political Sci Governance 2023;5(1):410-419. DOI: 10.33545/26646021.2023.v5.i1e.646
