Institutional Theory in International Relations

”Yes, we have no bananas! ” Thus goes the paradoxical refrain of an old popular tune. In the same vein, international relations (IR) scholars could be imagined chanting: “Yes, we have no institutions! ” The realist orthodoxy of IR posits an international system characterized by anarchy and thus devoid of effective institutions. Yet in recent decades growing numbers of IR scholars have come to apply institutional perspectives. And many prominent puzzles in today’s world can be framed in institutional terms. For example, why has NATO survived the end of the cold war, whereas the Warsaw Pact was dissolved? Why does the deepening and broadening of integration within the European Union continue despite periods of ”Eurosclerosis ” and dwindling popular support? Why do a host of practices based on state sovereignty remain in a world characterized by globalization and diminishing significance of territory and state borders? Institutional factors would no doubt loom large in the answers given to these and several other current questions by some, but by no means by all, I