Open economy politics and international security dynamics: Explaining international cooperation in financial crises

Abstract

Why do states cooperate during international financial crises? A prominent account of such phenomena is provided by the Open Economy Politics approach, which advocates a methodological reductionism that focuses on domestic interests and institutions as explanatory drivers of foreign economic policy. I argue that the appropriateness and utility of this approach diminishes in two important contexts: when levels of economic interdependence and international institutionalization are both high; and when international insecurity is rising. Since the second condition has greater generality in international relations, I test it by focusing on a period when international economic institutionalization..