Books in the Elements in International Relations series

Providing new empirical evidence to support the theory, the author provides an explanation for the power of weak states in international climate negotiations. It is argued that assumptions on their coordinated salience for climate issues are insufficent and the author pushes the leaders of strong countries to concede power to weaker states.

This Element provides an overview of six areas of research in neuroscience and moral psychology. It surveys existing literature to see how literature from moral psychology is already being put to use, and then recommends a research agenda for norms researchers engaging with this literature.

When new leaders come to office, there is often speculation about whether they will take their countries' foreign policies in different directions or stick to their predecessors' policies. We argue that when new leaders come to power who represent different societal interests and preferences than their predecessors, leaders may pursue new foreign policies. At the same time, in democracies, leadership selection processes and policymaking rules blunt leaders' incentives and opportunities for change. Democracies thus tend to pursue more consistent foreign policies than nondemocracies even when new leaders with different supporting coalitions assume office. Statistical analyses of three distinct foreign policy areas - military alliances, UNGA voting, and economic sanctions - provide support for our argument. In a fourth area - trade - we find that both democracies and nondemocracies are more likely to experience foreign policy change when a new leader with a different supporting coalition comes to power. We thus conclude that foreign policy responds to domestic political interests, and that, even as the interests supporting leaders change, democracies' foreign policies are no less stable than those of nondemocracies and often exhibit greater consistency.