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Frontmatter --Contents --Contributors --Preface --Abbreviations --1. Reconciling Multiple Institutions: Bargaining, Linkages, and Nesting /Aggarwal, Vinod K. --2. Nested Institutions and the European Monetary System /Weber, Steven --3. An Empty Nest? Reconciling European Security Institutions in the Bosnian Crisis /Crawford, Beverly --4. The Failure of the Nest-Best Solution: EC-EFTA Institutional Relationships and the European Economic Area /Dupont, Cédric --5. When Giants Clash: The OECD Financial Support Fund and the IMF /Cohen, Benjamin J. --6. Institutional Nesting: Lessons and Prospects /Aggarwal, Vinod K. --Index

International debt rescheduling, both in earlier epochs and our present one, has been marked by a flurry of bargaining. In this process, significant variation has emerged over time and across cases in the extent to which debtors have undertaken economic adjustment, banks or bondholders have written down debts, and creditor governments and international organizations have intervened in negotiations. Debt Games develops and applies a situational theory of bargaining to analyze the adjustment undertaken by debtors and the concessions provided by lenders in international debt rescheduling. This approach has two components: a focus on each actor's individual situation, defined by its political and economic bargaining resources, and a complementary focus on changes in their position. The model proves successful in accounting for bargaining outcomes in eighty-four percent of the sixty-one cases, which include all instances of Peruvian and Mexican debt rescheduling over the last one hundred and seventy years as well as Argentine and Brazilian rescheduling between 1982 and 1994

This special issue focuses on the rise of mega-FTAs—which involve efforts to liberalize trade across geographical regions with a multiplicity of countries—in the Asia-Pacific. We examine how the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in this region have faced political resistance as negotiators attempt to address behind-the-border issues.

Abstract
This article examines the driving factors that account for patterns of linkages to broader economic, labor, environmental, and security issues in U.S. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Rather than only emphasizing trade benefits or security considerations as in much recent work on FTAs, this analysis provides a richer empirical picture by focusing on the full universe of U.S. FTAs. It conceptually differentiates among different issues that might be linked to FTAs and categorizes different patterns of U.S. FTAs based on the key issues that drove negotiations. The article then examines these negotiations from a theoretical standpoint, focusing on three elements. First, it examines the degree to which linkages in the U.S. domestic policymaking process are top-down or bottom-up. Second, it considers linkages types in terms of the underlying basis for issue connections – either power or knowledge. Third, it more briefly examines the bargaining process. The conceptual and theoretical analysis is buttressed through an examination of various illustrative cases of U.S. FTA negotiations to demonstrate the utility of this approach to illuminate the variety of 'linkage packages' that have driven U.S. FTAs. We conclude with the broader implications of linkages politics in FTAs.

The question of whether IPE journals are boring, in Benjamin Cohen's provocative words, provides us with a useful opportunity to introspect on the state of the field. Briefly, to set the stage, Cohen argues that IPE has begun to mimic the methodological approach of most of the economics field -- leading to a focus on mid-level theory -- rather than on the big picture that characterized IPE in the early 1970s and 1980s. Cohen argues that journal editors have an important role to play to rectify this lack of imaginative thinking and writing. Specifically, he develops three well-articulated solutions. First, he suggests that the field would benefit from more review essays and that editors should actively solicit such articles. Second, he argues that symposia on various themes could help spice up the debate in the field. And third, he notes that changing submission policies to encourage commentaries and provocative arguments would enhance the prospects for greater creativity. Adapted from the source document.