1 - Introduction

Summary

Why should regional organisations, having developed progressive checks on sovereignty at the start of the twenty-first century, roll them back at the first challenges to these principles? Dominant norm theories suggested a ‘cascade’ of internalisation of liberal norms that had begun at the end of the Cold War, but these had come to be challenged by emerging theories of normative contestation. The chapter critiques the expectations generated by norm cascade theory, suggesting a rethink of the role of power and a more evolutionary, anti-foundationalist approach to understanding norm development.