Michael Leslie Lipson
Published: 1999
Total Pages: 686
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This dissertation provides an explanation for recent standardization and growth of international export control regimes. I argue that neoinstitutionalist organization theory contributes to an explanation of these organizations which coordinate efforts to limit the spread of weapons-related technologies. The neoinstitutionalist approach claims that organizational structures are often not selected for maximal effectiveness at tasks such as controlling weapons-related exports. Rather, they are selected for their fit with norms shared within communities of organizations that interact regularly or share common tasks. The dissertation adapts and applies this literature to the subject of export control cooperation through process-tracing case studies of export control regimes such as CoCom and the Wassenaar Arrangement. I argue that a transnational community of organizations, or organizational field, has developed in the issue area of nonproliferation export controls. While extant theories of International Relations help explain the origins of international export control cooperation, they do not explain the extent or form such efforts have taken today. Shared norms in this issue area and copying of organizations perceived as successful explain the growth and standardization of multilateral nonproliferation regimes and international export control practices. These factors are highlighted by the sociological theories I draw upon. The case studies are constructed from archival data, interviews with policy makers, trade literature, and secondary sources.