Challenges of Multilateralism

Multilateral initiatives have brought about striking, yet diverging, results. International organizations often struggle with the nationalist impulses of member states, different and shifting goals, and a lack of enforcement methods. Here, Kathryn Lavelle offers a history of multilateralism from its origins to the present. Lavelle focuses on the creation and evolution of major problem-solving organizations, examines the governmental challenges they have confronted and continue to face from both domestic and transnational constituencies, and considers how nongovernmental organizations facilitate their work.