The Study of International Regimes

Abstract

The article surveys the literature on international `regimes'. Regimes are social institutions that influence the behavior of states and their subjects. They consist of informal and formalized principles and norms, as well as specific rules, procedures and programs. The term is explicitly broad and captures the unwritten understandings and relationships, as well as the formal legal agreements, that influence how states and individuals behave in any given issue area. Scholarship over the last decade has elaborated how regimes are formed; this article surveys that work and focuses on more recent scholarship that has turned from the formation of regimes to the question of what makes regimes in general `effective' and which `types of regimes' are especially effective. The survey concludes with the identification of future research priorities in the field.