Hierarchy Amidst Anarchy: Transaction Costs and Institutional Choice

Hierarchy Amidst Anarchy is a study of state security provisions, explaining not only why states cooperate, and with whom, but also why they choose the specific types of cooperation they do. In contrast to competing theories that explain international cooperation in terms of the desire to be "bigger" or "stronger", Weber insists that the key to understanding countries' international institutional choices can be found by focusing on economic theories of organization and, more specifically, transaction costs.

Katja Weber is Assistant Professor of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology