In my initial studies of international relations and world politics through the mainstream theoretic lenses, the idea that \u201cliberal\u201d institutions operating within the anarchic structure of the international system can facilitate cooperation and reduce the likelihood of conflict has deeply intrigued me.\u00a0 The increasing societal interconnectedness brought about by globalization personalizes the hope that such institutions may offer potential to make the world a safer place. While neorealism and neoliberalism disagree to some extent on the causes and likelihood of cooperation, combining essential components of these theories may prove invaluable to understanding the viability of institutional cooperation. However, neither view seems to fully account for the impact of domestic variables on international outcomes.<\/p>\n
Joseph Grieco\u2019s concept of \u201crelative gains\u201d and Robert Keohane\u2019s \u201cprinciple of reciprocity\u201d in particular have significantly furthered our understanding of the causes and conditions for durable cooperation among states.\u00a0 Might these tools be inherently flexible enough to incorporate domestic variables, thus loosening anarchic assumptions and opening the door for enhanced cooperation through institutions? Moreover, can the inclusion of domestic variables in context to these tools explain subpar cooperation in the Middle East?<\/p>\n
The essay\u2019s first section will offer a brief explanation of the Middle Eastern context in which these theoretical tools will be examined. This politically and religiously fragmented\u00a0 region is marked by huge disparities between wealth and poverty, Sunnis and Shias, and common nationality and sectarian strife. It all makes the Middle East (ME) an outstanding area to examine the impact of domestic-level variables (DLVs).\u00a0 In the second section I will lay out a summary of the reciprocity and relative gains concepts and make a general assessment of their ability to explain ME conflicts and lack of regional, institutional cooperation.<\/p>\n
In the third section, I will apply DLVs as part of reciprocity and relative gains concepts to analyze the unique intergovernmental organization of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC) within the double security dilemma of competing state and domestic interests. In the fourth section I\u2019ll review the anarchic environment and role of process as specific variables and causal determinants of state interests and outcomes within a structural view of the state that incorporates a simultaneous, dual security analysis, \u00a0and shift the focus from\u00a0 reciprocity and relative gains to the theoretical perspectives of neorealism and neoliberalism from which they\u2019re derived.<\/p>\n
In the essay\u2019s fifth and final section, I will present some ideas on moving forward towards greater stability and equitable prosperity in the ME through the promotion of a few specific ideas to include a greater role for capitalism, education, job creation and religious tolerance. Additionally, the application of \u201csoft power\u201d and \u201ccontextual intelligence\u201d will be reviewed as potential strategies that utilize DLVs to shape interests and preferences, thereby influencing outcomes. {20 pages double-spaced + 18 references} <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In my initial studies of international relations and world politics through the mainstream theoretic lenses, the idea that \u201cliberal\u201d institutions operating within the anarchic structure of the international system can<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,6,229],"tags":[14,74,75,70,60,69,53,55,67,71,61,58,76,64,56,15,57,63,66,54,65,68,62,72,73,59],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-relations","category-theory-and-the-international-system","category-paid-content","tag-anarchy","tag-arab-league","tag-balance-of-power","tag-diffuse-reciprocity","tag-domestic-level-variables","tag-double-security-dilemma","tag-gcc","tag-institutional-cooperation","tag-institutions","tag-international-regimes","tag-jennifer-sterling-folker","tag-joseph-grieco","tag-liberal-institutions","tag-liberals","tag-middle-east","tag-neorealism","tag-opec","tag-realists","tag-reciprocity","tag-regimes","tag-relative-gains","tag-robert-keohane","tag-self-help","tag-shape-interests","tag-state-actors","tag-zeino-mahmalat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31a0x-T","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":841,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/span><\/p>\n