Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:49:18.142Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Before Hegemony: Generalized Trust and the Creation and Design of International Security Organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 April 2011

Brian C. Rathbun
Brian C. Rathbun
Affiliation:
School of International Relations, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Rationalist accounts of international cooperation maintain that states create international institutions to solve problems of distrust. They rest on a particular notion of trust, a strategic variety in which states trust based on information about others' interests. I seek to overturn this conventional wisdom. Drawing on social psychology, I point to the importance of generalized trust, an ideological belief about the trustworthiness of others in general. Generalized trust precedes institution-building and serves as a form of anarchical social capital, facilitating diffuse reciprocity and allowing state leaders to commit to multilateralism even in cases that rationalists deem inhospitable to cooperation and without the institutional protections that rationalists expect. In case studies of U.S. policy on the creation of the League of Nations and the United Nations, I demonstrate that generalized trust is necessary for explaining the origins of American multilateralism and the design of these organizations.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 243 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abbott, Kenneth W., and Snidal, Duncan. 1998. Why States Act Through Formal International Organizations. Journal of Conflict Resolution 42 (1):3–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acheson, Dean. 1969. Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department. 1st ed.New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Alcock, James E., and Mansell, Diana. 1977. Predisposition and Behavior in a Collective Dilemma. Journal of Conflict Resolution 21 (3):443–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altemeyer, Bob. 1988. Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right-Wing Authoritarianism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Altemeyer, Bob. 1998. The Other ‘Authoritarian Personality.’ Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 30 (1):47–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambrosius, Lloyd E. 1987. Woodrow Wilson and the American Diplomatic Tradition: The Treaty Fight in Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Axelrod, Robert M. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Brann, Peter, and Foddy, Margaret. 1987. Trust and the Consumption of a Deteriorating Common Resource. Journal of Conflict Resolution 31 (4):615–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bull, Hedley. 1977. The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Thomas M. 1973. Masquerade Peace: America's UN Policy, 1944–1945. Tallahassee: Florida State University Press.Google Scholar
Conover, Pamela Johnston, and Feldman, Stanley. 1981. The Origins and Meaning of Liberal/Conservative Self-Identifications. American Journal of Political Science 25 (4):617–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, Karen S., and Cooper, Robin M.. 2003. Experimental Studies of Cooperation, Trust, and Social Exchange. In Trust and Reciprocity: Interdisciplinary Lessons from Experimental Research, edited by Ostrom, Elinor and Walker, James, 209–44. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Cooper, John Milton Jr. 2001. Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Curti, Merle. 1957. Woodrow Wilson's Concept of Human Nature. Midwest Journal of Political Science 1 (1):1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawes, Robyn M., McTavish, Jeanne, and Shaklee, Harriet. 1977. Behavior, Communication, and Assumptions About Other People's Behavior in a Commons Dilemma Situation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 35 (1):1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deutsch, Morton. 1960. Trust, Trustworthiness and the F-Scale. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 61 (1):138–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Divine, Robert A. 1967. Second Chance: The Triumph of Internationalism in America during World War II. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar
Downs, George W., Rocke, David M., and Barsoom, Peter N.. 1998. Managing the Evolution of Multilateralism. International Organization 52 (2):397–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duckitt, John. 2001. A Dual-Process Cognitive-Motivational Theory of Ideology and Prejudice. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 33 (1):41–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duckitt, John, and Fisher, Kirstin. 2003. The Impact of Social Threat on Worldview and Ideological Attitudes. Political Psychology 24 (1):199–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duckitt, John, and Sibley, Chris G.. 2009. A Dual-Process Motivational Model of Ideology, Politics, and Prejudice. Psychological Inquiry 20 (2):98–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duckitt, John, Wagner, Claire, du Plessis, Ilouize, and Birum, Ingrid. 2001. The Psychological Bases of Ideology and Prejudice: Testing a Dual Process Model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 (1):75–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dueck, Colin. 2006. Reluctant Crusaders: Power, Culture, and Change in American Grand Strategy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, Stanley. 2003. Enforcing Social Conformity: A Theory of Authoritarianism. Political Psychology 24 (1):41–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Stanley, and Stenner, Karen. 1997. Perceived Threat and Authoritarianism. Political Psychology 18 (4):741–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaddis, John Lewis. 2000. The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Gerring, John. 1998. Party Ideologies in America, 1828–1996. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardin, Russell. 2006. Trust. Cambridge, England: Polity.Google Scholar
Hilderbrand, Robert C. 1990. Dumbarton Oaks: The Origins of the United Nations and the Search for Postwar Security. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Aaron M. 2002. A Conceptualization of Trust in International Relations. European Journal of International Relations 8 (3):375–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, Aaron M. 2006. Building Trust: Overcoming Suspicion in International Conflict. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Hoopes, Townsend, and Brinkley, Douglas. 1997. FDR and the Creation of the U.N. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hull, Cordell. 1948. The Memoirs of Cordell Hull. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Ikenberry, G. John. 2001. After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Patrick Thaddeus. 2006. Civilizing the Enemy: German Reconstruction and the Invention of the West. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janoff-Bulman, Ronnie. 2009. To Provide or Protect: Motivational Bases of Political Liberalism and Conservatism. Psychological Inquiry 20 (2):120–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jost, John T., Glaser, Jack, Kruglanski, Arie W., and Sulloway, Frank J.. 2003. Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition. Psychological Bulletin 129 (3):339–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jost, John T., Napier, Jaime L., Thorisdottir, Hulda, Gosling, Samuel, Palfai, Tibor P., and Ostafin, Brian. 2007. Are Needs to Manage Uncertainty and Threat Associated with Political Conservatism or Ideological Extremity? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 33 (7):989–1007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kahler, Miles. 1992. Multilateralism with Small and Large Numbers. International Organization 46 (3):681–708.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelley, Harold H., and Stahelski, Anthony J.. 1970. Social Interaction Basis of Cooperators' and Competitors' Beliefs About Others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 16 (1):66–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keohane, Robert. O. 1984. After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert. O. 1986. Reciprocity in International Relations. International Organization 40 (1):1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knock, Thomas J. 1992. To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Koremenos, Barbara. 2005. Contracting around International Uncertainty. American Political Science Review 99 (4):549–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koremenos, Barbara, Lipson, Charles, and Snidal, Duncan. 2001. The Rational Design of International Institutions. International Organization 55 (4):761–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kramer, Roderick M., Brewer, Marilynn B., and Hanna, Benjamin A.. 1996. Collective Trust and Collective Action: The Decision to Trust as a Social Decision. In Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, edited by Kramer, Roderick M. and Tyler, Tom R., 357–89. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhlman, D. Michael, Camac, Curt R., and Cunha, Denise A.. 1986. Individual Differences in Social Orientation. In Experimental Social Dilemmas, edited by Wilke, Henk A. M., Messick, David M., and Rutte, Christel G., 151–76. Frankfurt/Main, Germany: Verlag Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Kuhlman, D. Michael, and Marshello, Alfred F.. 1975. Individual Differences in Game Motivation as Moderators of Preprogrammed Strategy Effects in Prisoner's Dilemma. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 32 (5):922–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kuhlman, D. Michael, and Wimberley, David L.. 1976. Expectations of Choice Behavior Held by Cooperators, Competitors, and Individualists Across Four Classes of Experimental Games. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 34 (1):69–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kupchan, Charles A., and Trubowitz, Peter L.. 2007. Dead Center: The Demise of Liberal Internationalism in the United States. International Security 32 (2):7–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kydd, Andrew H. 2005. Trust and Mistrust in International Relations. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, David A. 1999. Entangling Relations: American Foreign Policy in Its Century. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, Deborah Welch. 1997. Anatomy of Mistrust: U.S.-Soviet Relations During the Cold War. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Legro, Jeffrey. 2005. Rethinking the World: Great Power Strategies and International Order. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Liebrand, Wim B. G., Jansen, Ronald W. T. L., Rijken, Victor M., and Suhre, Cor J. M.. 1986. Might over Morality: Social Values and the Perception of Other Players in Experimental Games. Journal of Experimental Psychology 22 (3):203–15.Google Scholar
Luhmann, Niklas. 1979. Trust and Power: Two Works. Chichester, England: Wiley.Google Scholar
Maki, Judith E., and McClintock, Charles G.. 1983. The Accuracy of Social Value Prediction: Actor and Observer Influences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45 (4):829–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margulies, Herbert F. 1989. The Mild Reservationists and the League of Nations Controversy in the Senate. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.Google Scholar
Martin, Lisa L. 1992. Interests, Power, and Multilateralism. International Organization 46 (4):765–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marwell, Gerald, and Ames, Ruth E.. 1979. Experiments on the Provision of Public Goods. I. Resources, Interest, Group Size, and the Free-Rider Problem. American Journal of Sociology 84 (6):1335–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClintock, Charles G., and Liebrand, Wim B.. 1988. Role of Interdependence Structure, Individual Value Orientation, and Another's Strategy in Social Decision Making: A Transformational Analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 55 (3):396–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mercer, Jonathan. 2005. Rationality and Psychology in International Politics. International Organization 59 (1):77–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Messick, David M., and Brewer, Marilynn. 1983. Solving Social Dilemmas: A Review. Review of Personality and Social Psychology 4:11–44.Google Scholar
Messick, David M., and Kramer, Roderick M.. 2001. Trust as a Form of Shallow Morality. In Trust in Society, edited by Cook, Karen S., 89–118. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Miller, Karen A. J. 1999. Populist Nationalism: Republican Insurgency and American Foreign Policy-Making, 1918–1925. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Moravcsik, Andrew. 1998. The Choice for Europe: Social Purpose and State Power from Messina to Maastricht. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Notter, Harley A. 1949. Postwar Foreign Policy Preparation, 1939–1945. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Orbell, John M., and Dawes, Robyn M.. 1993. Social Welfare, Cooperators' Advantage, and the Option of Not Playing the Game. American Sociological Review 58 (6):787–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orbell, John M., Schwartz-Shea, Peregrine, and Simmons, Randy T.. 1984. Do Cooperators Exit More Readily Than Defectors? American Political Science Review 78 (1):147–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osgood, Robert Endicott. 1953. Ideals and Self-Interest in America's Foreign Relations: The Great Transformation of the Twentieth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Oye, Kenneth A. 1985. Explaining Cooperation Under Anarchy: Hypotheses and Strategies. World Politics 38 (1):1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patrick, Stewart. 2009. The Best Laid Plans: The Origins of American Multilateralism and the Dawn of the Cold War. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Pollack, Mark A. 1997. Delegation, Agency, and Agenda Setting in the European Community. International Organization 51 (1):99–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard. 2007. Ideology and Congress. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rathbun, Brian C. 2007. Hierarchy and Community at Home and Abroad: Evidence of a Common Structure of Domestic and Foreign Policy Beliefs in American Elites. Journal of Conflict Resolution 51 (3):379–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, Philip Alan, and Hughes, E. J.. 1976. The Historian as Diplomat: Charles Kingsley Webster and the United Nations, 1939–1946. London: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Rosendorff, B. Peter, and Milner, Helen V.. 2001. The Optimal Design of International Trade Institutions: Uncertainty and Escape. International Organization 55 (4):829–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rotter, John B. 1980. Interpersonal Trust, Trustworthiness and Gullibility. American Psychologist 35 (1):1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John G. 1992. Multilateralism: The Anatomy of an Institution. International Organization 46 (3):561–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggie, John G. 1997. The Past as Prologue? Interests, Identity, and American Foreign Policy. International Security 21 (4):89–125.Google Scholar
Russell, Ruth B. 1958. A History of the United Nations Charter: The Role of the United States, 1940–1945. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Stephen C. 2003. Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations: A Story of Superpowers, Secret Agents, Wartime Allies and Enemies, and Their Quest for a Peaceful World. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Snidal, Duncan. 1985. The Limits of Hegemonic Stability Theory. International Organization 39 (4):579–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snyder, Glenn H. 1984. The Security Dilemma in Alliance Politics. World Politics 36 (4):461–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stein, Arthur A. 1982. Coordination and Collaboration: Regimes in an Anarchic World. International Organization 36 (2):299–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stettinius, Edward R. Jr. 1975. The Diaries of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., 1943–1946. Edited by Campbell, Thomas M. and Herring, George C.. New York: New Viewpoints.Google Scholar
Stone, Ralph A. 1970. The Irreconcilables: The Fight Against the League of Nations. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Sztompka, Piotr. 1999. Trust: A Sociological Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tomkins, Silvan S., and Izard, Carroll E., eds. 1965. Affect, Cognition, and Personality: Empirical Studies. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. 2001. Why Do People Rely on Others? Social Identity and Social Aspects of Trust. In Trust in Society, edited by Cook, Karen S., 285–306. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R., and Degoey, Peter. 1996. Trust in Organizational Authorities: The Influence of Motive Attributions on Willingness to Accept Decisions. In Trust in Organizations: Frontiers of Theory and Research, edited by Kramer, Rodrick M. and Tyler, Tom R., 331–56. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyszka, Tadeusz, and Grzelak, Janusz L.. 1976. Criteria of Choice in Non-Constant-Sum Games. Journal of Conflict Resolution 20 (2):357–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uslaner, Eric M. 2002. The Moral Foundations of Trust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
U.S. Senate. 1945. The Charter of the United Nations: Hearings Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, 79th Cong., 1st sess. Washington, D.C: Government Print Office.Google Scholar
Vandenberg, Arthur H. Jr., ed. 1952. The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Van Lange, Paul A. M., and Kuhlman, Michael D.. 1994. Social Value Orientations and Impressions of Partner's Honesty and Intelligence: A Test of the Might Versus Morality Effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67 (1):126–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, Katja. 2000. Hierarchy Amidst Anarchy: Transaction Costs and Institutional Choice. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Widenor, William C. 1980. Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Foreign Policy. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Woodrow. 1966. The Papers of Woodrow Wilson. Vol. 37, May 9–August 7, 1916; Vol. 38, August 7–November 19, 1916; Vol. 40, November 20, 1916–January 23, 1917; Vol. 45, November 11, 1917–January 15, 1918. Edited by Link, Arthur S.. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Yamagishi, Toshio. 2001. Trust as a Form of Social Intelligence. In Trust in Society, edited by Cook, Karen S., 121–47. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Yamagishi, Toshio, Cook, Karen S., and Watabe, Motoki. 1998. Uncertainty, Trust, and Commitment Formation in the United States and Japan. American Journal of Sociology 104 (1):165–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamagishi, Toshio, and Sato, Kaori. 1986. Motivational Bases of the Public Goods Problem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 50 (1):67–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yamagishi, Toshio, and Yamagishi, Midori. 1994. Trust and Commitment in the United States and Japan. Motivation and Emotion 18 (2):129–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar