Despite its importance in the global system, the literature provides lit- tle guidance on how treaty-making emerged as a well-accepted prac- tice. In either assuming the appropriateness of treaty-making (and then analysing design) or treating treaties as strategic choices in the pursuit of gains (without analysing how treaties came to be a way to pursue gains), the current literature discounts the emergence and evolution of treaty-making. This lacuna contributes to a biased view of treaty- making as the epiphenomenal result of specific, ahistorical factors, rather than as a patterned, historical practice. We contend that the evo- lution of the practice of treaty-making is significant for questions of design/compliance, the future of multilateral interaction and global order. In addressing this concern, we pursue two linked goals. The first is self-consciously descriptive. We introduce a dataset of multilateral treaties that provides a novel picture of treaty-making across time, space and issue-areas. The second goal is explanatory. We develop and test a social constructivist and path-dependent explanation for the patterns of treaty-making evident in the data, especially 150 years of exponential growth, the spread of treaty-making across multiple issues and the diffusion of the practice across the world.
%0 Journal Article
%1 denemark2008scraps
%A Denemark, Robert A.
%A Hoffmann, Matthew J.
%D 2008
%J Cooperation and Conflict
%K diplomacy long-term network-analysis path-dependence security treaty
%N 2
%P 185--219
%R 10.1177/0010836708089082
%T Just Scraps of Paper?: The Dynamics of Multilateral Treaty-Making
%U http://cac.sagepub.com/cgi/doi/10.1177/0010836708089082
%V 43
%X Despite its importance in the global system, the literature provides lit- tle guidance on how treaty-making emerged as a well-accepted prac- tice. In either assuming the appropriateness of treaty-making (and then analysing design) or treating treaties as strategic choices in the pursuit of gains (without analysing how treaties came to be a way to pursue gains), the current literature discounts the emergence and evolution of treaty-making. This lacuna contributes to a biased view of treaty- making as the epiphenomenal result of specific, ahistorical factors, rather than as a patterned, historical practice. We contend that the evo- lution of the practice of treaty-making is significant for questions of design/compliance, the future of multilateral interaction and global order. In addressing this concern, we pursue two linked goals. The first is self-consciously descriptive. We introduce a dataset of multilateral treaties that provides a novel picture of treaty-making across time, space and issue-areas. The second goal is explanatory. We develop and test a social constructivist and path-dependent explanation for the patterns of treaty-making evident in the data, especially 150 years of exponential growth, the spread of treaty-making across multiple issues and the diffusion of the practice across the world.
@article{denemark2008scraps,
abstract = {Despite its importance in the global system, the literature provides lit- tle guidance on how treaty-making emerged as a well-accepted prac- tice. In either assuming the appropriateness of treaty-making (and then analysing design) or treating treaties as strategic choices in the pursuit of gains (without analysing how treaties came to be a way to pursue gains), the current literature discounts the emergence and evolution of treaty-making. This lacuna contributes to a biased view of treaty- making as the epiphenomenal result of specific, ahistorical factors, rather than as a patterned, historical practice. We contend that the evo- lution of the practice of treaty-making is significant for questions of design/compliance, the future of multilateral interaction and global order. In addressing this concern, we pursue two linked goals. The first is self-consciously descriptive. We introduce a dataset of multilateral treaties that provides a novel picture of treaty-making across time, space and issue-areas. The second goal is explanatory. We develop and test a social constructivist and path-dependent explanation for the patterns of treaty-making evident in the data, especially 150 years of exponential growth, the spread of treaty-making across multiple issues and the diffusion of the practice across the world.},
added-at = {2010-03-08T21:12:06.000+0100},
author = {Denemark, Robert A. and Hoffmann, Matthew J.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2c633a89ad83b0b0be9dbb40d8d8ecca7/jrennstich},
doi = {10.1177/0010836708089082},
interhash = {a48994e8c88d8bf81f92534257f0d241},
intrahash = {c633a89ad83b0b0be9dbb40d8d8ecca7},
issn = {0010-8367},
journal = {Cooperation and Conflict},
keywords = {diplomacy long-term network-analysis path-dependence security treaty},
lccn = {0000},
number = 2,
pages = {185--219},
timestamp = {2010-03-08T21:12:07.000+0100},
title = {Just Scraps of Paper?: The Dynamics of Multilateral {Treaty-Making}},
url = {http://cac.sagepub.com/cgi/doi/10.1177/0010836708089082},
volume = 43,
year = 2008
}