Explaining Postwar Strategic Cooperation between the United States and Its Former Adversaries
Journal: Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Year: 2019

I present a bargaining theory of strategic cooperation--which I define as voluntary, deep, and enduring cooperation--that focuses on the influence of credible commitment problems to explain variation in the qualities of strategic cooperation. I argue that variations in a relationship's qualities of cooperation are primarily explained by credible commitment problems at the international and domestic levels. I identify three sources of credible commitment problems at the international level (spoil