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'With the end of the Cold War, the International Monetary Fund emerged as the most powerful international institution in history. But how much influence can the IMF exert over fiercely contested issues in domestic politics that affect the lives of millions? In Lending Credibility, Randall Stone develops the first systematic approach to answering this question. Deploying an arsenal of methods from a range of social sciences rarely combined, he mounts a forceful challenge to conventional wisdom. Focusing on the former Soviet bloc, Stone finds that the IMF is neither as powerful as some critics fear, nor as weak as others believe, but that the answer hinges on the complex factor of how much credibility it can muster from country to country. Stone begins by building a formal, game-theoretic model of lending credibility, which he then subjects to sophisticated quantitative testing on original data from twenty-six countries over the 1990s. Next come detailed, interview-based case studies on negotiations between the IMF and Russia, Ukraine, Poland, and Bulgaria. Stone asserts that the IMF has exerted startling influence over economic policy in smaller countries, such as Poland and Bulgaria. However, where U.S. foreign policy interests come more heavily into play, as in Russia, the IMF cannot credibly commit to enforcing the loans-for-policy contract. This erodes its ability to facilitate enduring market reforms. Stone's context is the postcommunist transition in Europe and Asia, but his findings carry implications for IMF activities the world over.' from publisher's description.

This article analyzes the relationship between partisan heterogeneity and cooperation in international organizations. We argue that partisan heterogeneity increases distributional conflict among states during intergovernmental negotiations, thereby increasing the costs of cooperation. This decreases governments' willingness to contribute to cooperative efforts. We test the theory against data on governments' financial contributions to the European Development Fund. The empirical analyses robustly demonstrate that partisan heterogeneity reduces governments' incentives to contribute to European cooperation on international development. On a more general level, we offer new perspective on the role of domestic politics in international cooperation.

Desde sus inicios, la disciplina de las Relaciones Internacionales (RI) ha tenido la intensión ortodoxa de construir un método científico propio, muy parecido al de las ciencias exactas. Sin embargo, dicha pretensión se plantea como una de las posibles aproximaciones a la manera como se estudia el comportamiento de la sociedad en lo internacional y, por lo tanto, forma parte del debate epistemológico que reviste un interés renovado para las RI y la filosofía de la ciencia en el siglo XXI. En este contexto, la hermenéutica ofrece claves para la consideración científica de lo social, que orientan al pensamiento de las Relaciones Internacionales hacia un enfoque interpretativo. Como un aporte a esta exégesis, el presente documento plantea el valor de la hermenéutica, a partir de los postulados de Nietzsche y Vattimo, como método de interpretación de la realidad internacional. [Este artículo es producto del proyecto de investigación INV-EES-2346 "Colombia en el pensamiento de las Relaciones Internacionales contemporáneas. Historia social de las escuelas y su influencia en la sociedad nacional de cara a los procesos de la globalización", financiado por la Vicerrectoría de Investigaciones de la Universidad Militar Nueva Granada.]