Bargaining over international multilateral agreements: the duration of negotiations

In: International interactions: empirical and theoretical research in international relations, Band 37, Heft 2, S. 147-169

Abstract

This article examines the duration of international multilateral agreement negotiations. Based on propositions in the literatureconcerning factors which may have an effect on the length of negotiations, I derive testable hypotheses concerning the involvement of intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations in the negotiation process, the number of negotiating parties, and the duration of the agreement. These hypotheses are tested using new data collected from the negotiations of 168 multilateral agreements. I find that whether a nonstate actor makes the first proposal does have an effect on the duration of multilateral agreement negotiations, but this relationship is conditional on issue area. In particular, when an intergovernmental organization makes the first proposal for security-related agreements, negotiations are longer, but the opposite is true for non-security agreement. (International Interactions/ FUB 2011)