Critiques
The Realist Critique
From its inception, regime theory and its successors have been criticized by
‘realist’ theorists of international relations arguing that international
institutions simply do not ‘matter’ in any meaningful way. According to the
conventional structural critique, regimes have little or no independent effect on
state behavior, especially when it comes to important economic and power
relationships (Strange, 1982). Regimes, and international cooperation more
generally, are readily upset by the logic of security competition because states
have an overwhelming concern with power and survival. As a result, regimes
are epiphenomenal to international politics: sustained cooperation can only
exist when it is consistent with power politics considerations (Gowa, 1994).
This logic does not preclude the establishment of cooperative institutions,
including military alliances, to satisfy short-term interests, but such forms of
organization are merely ‘temporary marriages of convenience’ (Mearsheimer,
1994/95, p. 11). Not all realists are so pessimistic. Glaser (1994/95) begins with
the basic assumptions of structural realism and shows that discord is not the
logical consequence under a wide variety of conditions.