The Path of Most Resistance: IOs and Domestic Public Opinion

Abstract

Securing Approval: Domestic Politics and Multilateral Authorization for War. By Terrence L. Chapman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. 189 pp., $27.50 paperback (ISBN-13 9780226101224). The list of reasons that states, and the people who lead them, use in seeking approval from international organizations before taking action against other states is well known. For the realist, states need not concern themselves with international organizations at all; the realist expects forgiveness rather than asks permission for their actions, since organizations have no ability to punish them (Mearsheimer 1995). For the liberal, international organizations serve to legitimatize intervention, conferring upon it the widespread approval of a large number of states who together can agree upon its necessity. The constructivist might note that states seek approval because of who they are, and they believe it is the appropriate thing to do given a particular situation and set of actors (Wendt 1992; March and Olson 1998). To this list Terrence Chapman adds another reason: states seek approval for their interventions because “IO activity can provide information to audiences that are important to governments…IO authorization can provide valuable political cover for governments considering controversial and possibly threatening foreign policies” (p. 21). In building this argument, Chapman adds strength to the now well-established link between domestic and international politics, stressing the role of the citizen in decoding the messages sent by international organizations and the role of leaders in determining which international organization is the most appropriate venue for new foreign policy initiatives. Through the five empirical chapters in his book, Chapman investigates two basic questions. The first questions the circumstances under which leaders will seek out the approval of international organizations when they know that those organizations lack …