Dysfunctional Diplomacy: The Politics of International Agreements in an Era of Partisan Polarization [Hardcover]

This book assesses the partisan domestic politics that impact international treaties and the unilateral presidential authority that such partisanship encourages.

Praise for Dysfunctional Diplomacy: The Politics of International Agreements in an Era of Partisan Polarization

Jeffrey Peake usefully demonstrates an important but often overlooked consequence of partisan polarization in Congress: it has rendered the treaty process unworkable. Having no option, presidents rely almost entirely on unilateral tools to make international agreements. This dysfunctional practice has weakened the role of Congress, undermined the countrys international commitments, and decreased Americas influence on international law.

George C. Edwards III, Texas A&M University and University of Oxford

No one has more thoroughly documented the decline of the U.S. treaty process than Jeffrey Peake. In this important book, Peake integrates and extends his groundbreaking empirical work on increasing presidential unilateralism in the making of international agreements.