Institutions for the Common Good

Bruce Cronin asks why states act collectively to protect populations within other states.

Why do states act through international organizations to protect populations within other states, even though this falls outside traditional definitions of state interest? Cronin argues that states act in this way because a cohesive international order, ensured by international protection, is essential to international stability.The protection of domestic populations by international institutions is both an anomaly and an enduring practice in international relations. It is an anomaly because in a system of sovereign states, the welfare of individuals and groups falls outside traditional definitions of state interest. Yet since the evolution of the nation-state system, collectivities of states have sought to protect religious minorities, dynastic families, national minorities, ethnic communities, individual citizens and refugees. Cronin explains this phenomenon by developing a theory that links international stability with the progress of a cohesive international order. His book examines how states attempt to provide for international stability by creating International Protection Regimes - multilateral institutions designed to protect clearly defined classes of people within sovereign states. It argues that in the aftermath of major systemic changes states try to create international orders by regulating the relationship between governments and their populations, particularly in newly-formed and reorganized states.