Dartmouth College Dartmouth Digital Commons Dartmouth Scholarship Faculty Work 9-2005 International Relations Theory and the Case Against Unilateralism Stephen Brooks Dartmouth College William C. Wohlforth Dartmouth College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/facoa Part of the International Relations Commons Dartmouth Digital Commons Citation Brooks, Stephen and Wohlforth, William C., "International Relations Theory and the Case Against Unilateralism" (2005). Dartmouth Scholarship. 2973. https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/facoa/2973 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Work at Dartmouth Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dartmouth Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Dartmouth Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Articles International Relations Theory and the Case against Unilateralism Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth What are the general costs associated with a U.S. shift toward unilateralism? According to the overwhelming majority of inter- national relations (IR) scholars, the costs are very high. We evaluate the key arguments that underlie this assessment, namely that increased U.S. unilateralism will: (1) spur the formation of a coalition to check U.S. power; (2) reduce efficiency gains through lost opportunities for institutionalized cooperation; and (3) undermine the legitimacy of the American-led international order. We conclude that the theoretical arguments that IR scholars advance do not show that a shift toward unilateralism necessarily has high costs. Our analysis reveals the need to, first, distinguish clearly between criticisms of unilateral policies based on procedure and those based on substance and, second, to recognize the weakness of current procedural arguments.