Anarchy complicates interstate interaction because there is no enforcement and no rules, unless there is an international institution. In basic terms anarchy is where there is no authority or sovereign above the states. There can be institutions to help states cooperate, but ultimately states may do what they want. When states have free roam is hard to get them to cooperate. In the cooperation problem we have two types of cooperation: coordination and collaboration. Coordination is where states make the same choices and have no incentive to defect, this is the easier of the two. Collaboration is where states work together to make choices, but still have incentives to defect. In terms of a cooperation problem modeling the anarchy of interstate …show more content…
The NPT has been successful because so many states have agreed and signed and this is because it has a strong foundation on four major pillars. The first pillar is that there will be non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, this means that non-nuclear weapon states will not get nuclear weapons and states with nuclear weapons will not give them or materials to non-nuclear weapons states. The second pillar is disarmament. Meaning that states that have nuclear weapons will be committed to slowly decreasing their stock hold of nuclear weapons. The third pillar is the inalienable right to use nuclear technology in order to save the peace or remain peaceful. The fourth and final pillar is verification through onsite monitoring, done through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). This has shown states that international institutions can be effective, especially if they have the right groundwork. Although there are some major limits to what an international institution is allowed to do. For example, the Nonproliferation Treaty cannot enforce its rules and regulations. It can report the rules broken to the United National Security Council, but there is no guarantee that something will be done about it. It is also fragile in the fact that it is easy to withdraw from the Treaty. All it takes is a six-month notification and then it is like you never signed, like North Korea. Personally, I think the NPT Treaty is doing fine because there are only nine active nuclear states, so the NPT is doing its job at keeping the number of nuclear weapons down. Using the Nonproliferation Treaty as an example, we can see that international institutions help bring some order and positive aspects back into the anarchy of international cooperation, but they have many flaws and