Description

The problem of international cooperation is central to strategic and security studies, and is one of the axes about which fundamental debates in international relations theory turn. Few goods are achievable in the absence of cooperation, and arguably none on a scale relevant to the relationships between states. As the power of states increases, so too the difficulty in maintaining cooperation between them and the risks attendant upon failing to do so. It has become almost axiomatic that the main obstacle to greater cooperation is a lack of trust between nations, particularly between great powers, and even more particularly between great powers as the balance between them shifts. The solution to the problem of cooperation must therefore be to build trust between such states.