The observation that the international institutional order has proven highly resilient in the face of exogenous shocks, while at the same time undergoing significant changes, has focused scholarly attention on questions of “institutional development.” This book addresses the challenge of explaining both stability and change in international institutions. First, we show that historical institutionalism (HI), thus far relatively neglected within international relations (IR), offers a set of analytical resources and substantive insights that are particularly useful for the kinds of questions IR i ... More

The observation that the international institutional order has proven highly resilient in the face of exogenous shocks, while at the same time undergoing significant changes, has focused scholarly attention on questions of “institutional development.” This book addresses the challenge of explaining both stability and change in international institutions. First, we show that historical institutionalism (HI), thus far relatively neglected within international relations (IR), offers a set of analytical resources and substantive insights that are particularly useful for the kinds of questions IR institutionalists are now addressing. Second, we provide a coherent conceptual framework to assess and measure institutional change and stability along the dimensions of speed, scope, and depth. Third, the book’s empirical chapters demonstrate how applying an HI approach to IR can improve our understanding of international institutional development and also serve to develop HI’s conceptual and theoretical foundations. The chapters cover a range of institutions important to IR, including the development of European Union competition policy, the global politics of financial reform after the 2008 crisis, the institutional development of the World Health Organization, membership reforms in the League of Nations and the United Nations Security Council, and civil society access to intergovernmental organizations. The concluding chapter situates the relationship of HI to other institutionalist approaches and assesses the role of HI in future IR research.