| Contracting States: Sovereign Transfers in International Relations Subjects: Sovereignty; Military bases American -- Foreign countries; Military bases British -- Foreign countries; France -- Armed Forces -- Foreign countries; Regionalism (International organization); Increasingly today nation-states are entering into agreements that involve the sharing or surrendering of parts of their sovereign powers and often leave the cession of authority incomplete or vague. But until now, we have known surprisingly little about how international actors design and implement these mixed-sovereignty arrangements. Contracting States uses the concept of "incomplete contracts"--agreements that are intentionally ambiguous and subject to future renegotiation--to explain how states divide and transfer their sovereign territory and functions, and demonstrate why some of these arrangements offer stable and lasting solutions while others ultimately collapse. Alexander Cooley is associate professor of political science at Barnard College, Columbia University. His books include Base Politics and Logics of Hierarchy . Hendrik Spruyt is the Norman Dwight Harris Professor of International Relations at Northwestern University. His books include Ending Empire and The Sovereign State and Its Competitors (Princeton). |