Compliance in International Relations

Compliance in International Relations Abstract This paper seeks to address whether state cooperation via formal international institutions may best be understood as a spectrum of compliance rather than binary states. Prevailing perspectives on state compliance to its international obligations generally presupposes binary state of compliance in which states adhere to its commitments and non-compliance in which states do not adhere to its commitments. This construction proves problematic as it disregards state intention; states may act in good faith to comply with its international commitments, yet fail to meet these commitments do to exogenous variables. While largely ignored by realists, liberal institutionalist and constructivist literature has sought to address this issue and provides a limited descriptive framework to understand non-binary states of compliance. While these frameworks are useful for understanding complexities inherent in defining non-compliance, these do not fulfill the stated objective of this paper: refram ing compliance as a spectrum rather than binary states. Intro, Research Question Chayes, Chayes and Mitchell (1998) illustrate the limitations of a binary compliance definition through a good-faith description of the environment treaty non-complier state. Environmental treaties attempt to impose regulatory requirements, not only on states, but on subsidiary private sector actors. Exogenous factors to environmental treaties may limit a state’s ability to enforce these regulatory requirements on private sector actors, resulting in a state of non-compliance. The binary definition of compliance disregards the good-faith in which a state enters an international agreement and further ignores the exogenous factors that limit state compliance. A binary definition of state compliance provides no relevant information by which one can determine whether non-compliance is a deliberate violation of state commitment or due to exogenous factors to the agreement. In order to provide a more descriptive framework to determine the nature of non-compliance, this paper posits t hat it is necessary to redefine compliance as a spectrum such that the level of compliance (C) can be defined: C∈[0,1], where 0 is perfectly non-compliant, and 1 is perfectly compliant. This definition of compliance may provide greater insight into the nature of a state’s non-compliance by providing information on the extent of non-compliance to treaty obligations. While disregarded by realists, the nature of compliance has been explored in liberal institutionalist, and constructivist literature. This literature has provided some insight into the complexity inherent in defining compliance; yet, it falls short of providing a definition of compliance which allows for further understanding of the nature of state non-compliance. In fact, constructivist literature fails entirely in this endeavor as it proposes that compliance is a social construction impervious to a general analysis. While a compliance spectrum does not fully illuminate exogenous factors to international commitments, within this definitional framework they exist as lurking variables upon which further scrutiny can be given. Furthermore, while not a conclusive determinant of state intention, a spectrum of compliance allows for consideration of good-faith through a quantitative estimate of how compliant states are with their international commitments. This is preferable to the existin g compliance binary which fully disregards good-faith in state action. Furthermore, this research aims to provide increased context and understanding of inter-state cooperation via international institutions. The creation of a compliance spectrum allows for observation of trends both in terms of a state’s tendency towards compliance or non-compliance and in terms of a state’s historical capacity to fulfill its international obligations. This contextual understanding of a state’s compliance may inform how commitments are enforced by institutions on a state-by-state level as well as inform the formulations of new inter-state agreements to take into account trends of compliance. Literature Review For realists, state power is the primary factor that governs interstate relations. Consequently realists find contention in the notion that formal international institutions play substantial role in determining state behavior (Boyle, 1980). Consequently, states are assumed to successfully comply only under conditions of shared interests or hegemonic coercion, and only in so far as compliance is congruent to a state’s foreign policy interests (Morgenthau, 1985). Under this formulation, a state’s international commitments and the formal institutions present to enforce them are indeterminate of state decisions to comply with their commitments (Aron, 1981). The primary grievance realists pose to compliance and enforcement literature is the lack of coercive power of formal international institutions to ensure state compliance. Furthermore since states possess jurisdiction to interpret provisions of international agreements, realists contend that states have no incentive to c omply with burdensome past commitments (Morgenthau, 1985). Realist formulations of international cooperation predominantly focus on state power and interest and generally disregard ideas concerning compliance. Since it is the aim of this paper to propose a redefinition of state compliance, it can be said that realists are pursuing an altogether different project and are consequently of no interest to our current undertaking. Liberal institutionalists formulate international agreements as a means by which states are able address common issues which cannot be addressed through unilateral action (Bilder, 1989). Within this formulation, compliance is largely due to state reputational costs. States expect higher costs in the long term if they are non-compliant with their short term commitments. Consequently, formal international institutions can be understood to amplify the reputational consequences of non-compliance by increasing transparency of state behavior (Keohane, 1984). Greater transparency and the potential for reciprocity in international agreements serve to increase compliance through iterative engagement amongst the same state actors. These conditions stabilize a state’s expectations concerning member state behavior and increase confidence that these states will comply with their international commitments. This in turn incentivizes a state to also comply with its international commitments ( Garrett Weingastt, 1993). Liberal institutionalist literature generally privileges the state as the sole agent of compliance. However the Downs and Rocke (1995) study of General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) rules illustrates how exogenous factors to the agreement, including domestic politics and interest group demands, play a major role in determining the degree of compliance one could expect from GATT signatories. Downs and Rocke illustrated that negotiating states agreed upon weak enforcement mechanisms due to uncertainty of future interest group demands. These uncertainties lead to the adoption short term obligations and less strict enforcement mechanisms thus reducing the cooperation demands for GATT states. In order to achieve compliance, states must address exogenous domestic factors to the agreement. This illustrates the primary failing of Liberal institutionalist literature which generally overemphasizes the roles of formal institutions and states over domestic factors. Further literature examines domestic administrative and technical incapacities as a source for non-compliance. Jacobson Brown Weiss (1995, 1997) illustrated that the determinant variable for successful compliance with environmental accords was administrative capacity. Domestic factors such as a skilled labor force, financial resources, and domestic legal authorization were crucial in order for a state successfully comply with environmental accords. In order to address these administrative incapacities, independent agencies may facilitate compliance by providing necessary resources to reach regulatory standards. Within this formulation state cooperation via international institutions serve not only promote compliance and enumerate state commitments, they also serve to enable states with administrative and technical incapacities to meet compliance standards (Hans et al, 1993). While Liberal institutionalist literature considers the intentions of states engaging in international agreements as well as the exogenous factors that determine a state’s compliance success, Liberal institutionalist literature still adopts a binary definition of compliance that disregards these factors. The complexities Liberal Institutionalists perceive within state compliance do not inform and are not represented in their formulation of compliance. This paper seeks to move beyond the work of liberal institutionalists and redefine compliance such that these complexities are integrated into our understanding of state compliance. Constructivist regime theorists formulate an understanding of state compliance in terms of international rules, norms and agreements. Rather than focusing on conditions of non-compliance constructivists posited that analysis should endeavor to understand how state behavior is interpreted by other states as well as how these behaviors are intended by the state actor. For Constructivists , the most relevant inquiry into state compliance was how states rationalized their actions and whether other states were receptive to its rationale (Kratochwil Ruggie, 1986). By this formulation, seemingly conflicting actions of state actors could be derived from similar principles and norms. Compliance is therefore not an objective fact; rather it is a subjective social construction. The implications of this theory are that 1) normative concepts such as fairness determine a state’s compliance decisions and 2) formal international institutions can be undermined- states become non-compliant- if they lose legitimacy with member states (Kratochwil Ruggie, 1986). The relationship between legitimacy and compliance has been explored multiple constructivist authors. Legro (1997) posited that understanding the attributes of a rule its specificity and durability- is the most effective way to determine the causal effect norms have on compliance outcomes. This theory argues that the clearer, more durable and endorsed a rule or norm is, the greater effect it will have in promoting state compliance. Other constructivists like Fisher (1981) argue that rules will promote compliance when they adhere to shared values and morals. Under this formulation the more widely held the rule the more compliant state actors will be to the rule. Keck Sikkink (1998) attempting to advance compliance in the human rights theatre assert that prohibitions that will successfully engender interstate compliance are those prohibitions that embody cross-cultural norms such as protection of innocent groups nd ensuring bodily integrity. For constructivists formal international institutions play a significant role in legitimating particular rules and fostering a sense of obligation amongst states. Tacsan (1992) exemplifies this through his discussion of the International Court of Justice, which he argues is a location where norms and normative values converge through the ICJ’s multilateral bargaining process. The convergence of norms at the ICJ has resulted in the development of norms concerning self-determination, non-intervention, and collective self-defense were the primary normative expectation that informed Central America’s peace settlements. Constructivist literature utilizes a normative approach in its study of compliance. Constructivists assert that norms of appropriateness, ideas, and values are the determinant factor to state compliance. Furthermore, constructivists assert that international commitments, and consequently compliance, are social construction that can only be understood through an intersubjective framework, and are imperious to a general analysis. By contextualizing compliance in a case-by-case basis, you are effectively left with no standard definition of compliance by which one can determine what constitutes non-compliance. The lack of a satisfactory definition of compliance in constructivist and liberal institutionalist literature that considers both intentions and trends is in need of formulation.

Reality of Business and HR Strategy Essay

â€Å"Strategic HRM is an approach that defines how the organisation’s goals will be achieved through people by means of HR strategies and integrated HR policies and practices† (Armstrong, 2009). The overall aim of strategic HRM is to maximise the firms’ performance by making sure all employees are of high calibre and committed to achieving the organisations competitive advantage. Within HRM it is not clear how to best link strategic HRM to the organisations strategy. The main argument involves two different approaches; best fit and best practice. The best fit strategy involves organisations tailoring their HR strategies around the organisations strategies and needs. Whereas the latter suggests that organisations will be more successful if they adopt best practices within the work place (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). ‘Best practice’, a form of universalism, is based around the theory that high commitment will reflect the organisations high performance l evel regardless of the firm’s competitive strategy (Torrington et al, 2011). This is demonstrated in Guest’s model (1989) Theory of HRM. The model is built around four main HR goals; commitment, flexibility, quality and strategic integration, the theory being if all goals are achieved then the organisation’s performance will be enhanced. Pfeffer (1998), also a supporter, progresses the said theory by claiming policies such as; high spending on training, high wages directly linked to performance will determine a high level of commitment and performance. Another criticism of best practice theory is that it is difficult to accept that there is an overall best practice for every organisation . One practice may have been successful and effective for an organisation does not mean that it will work for every organisation (Armstrong, 2006). This factor helps show that when analysing business and hr within all organisations best practice is impossible to achieve as every organisations situations are different. Torrington et al (2011), dispute the validity of the theory by arguing that a simple model cannot realistically meet the complexity that comes with managing staff. As well as universalist the approach is also unitarist, as it presumes that all management have to do is follow a set of policies and it will automatically a chieve high performance, and that workers will obey  this without question. In reality this is a lot more complicated to re-enact. Hofstede (1980), as cited by Boxall and Purcell, also argues that it would be extremely difficult to design a set of practices due to extreme differences between countries and cultures. Furthermore, best practice may benefit executives but on shareholders and waged employee’s expense. An example being, it may put in place a generous redundancy package for executives and typically employees lose out. It can be argued that the most sustainable HRM practices are those which benefit the organisation as a whole such as best fit (Boxall and Purcell, 2008). In a addition to these arguments, Boxall and Purcell (2011) cite studies by MacDuffie (1995) and Ichniowski and Snow (1999) which suggest that best practice is impossible to achieve when comparing two industrial firms. Although many theorists would argue that best fit is the most applicable for most organisations, best practice should not be completely overlooked as Becker and Gerhart (1996) state that it may be more †appropriate for identifying the principles underlying the choice of practices, as opposed to the practices themselves† References Armstrong (2009) Armstrong’s Handook of Human Resource Management Practice London: Koogan Boxall, P & Purcell, J (2011) Strategy and Human Resource Management 3rd Edition Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan Becker, B E and Gerhart, S (1996) The Impact of Human Resource Management on Organisational Performance: Progress and Prospects Academy of Management Journal 39 (4), Page 779-801 Hall, L, Taylor L. & Torrington, D. (2008) Human Resource Management 7th Edition London: Prentice Hall

The Irony of William Shakespeares Othello Essay - 1428 Words

The Irony of William Shakespeares Othello Irony plays a great role in ?The Tragedy of Othello?. The villain, Iago, plans from the very beginning of the play to ruin Othello?s life. All the major characters in the play believe that Iago is an honest and trustworthy person. The tragic irony is that Iago fools them all. Throughout the whole play Iago manipulates the people around him and lies to them. Iago is very distressed, because Michael Cassio was promoted to Othello?s lieutenant instead of himself. This is Iago?s main reason for revenge against Othello. Iago?s plan is to manipulate Cassio and Desdemona, so that it would appear that they are having an affair; which would break Othello?s heart. Iago does succeed in his plan,†¦show more content†¦Montano tells Iago that Othello ?prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio and looks not on his evils?(2. 3. 121-122). This means that Othello trusts Cassio and does not doubt him. 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The Psychology Behind the Serial Killer Essay - 3244 Words

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