Information systems in treaty regimes

One of the most influential arguments in international relations is that international institutions influence states behavior by monitoring their compliance with treaties, which in turn facilitates reciprocity Empirically, however, many treaty organizations are not mandated to monitor compliance. The article develops a parsimonious theoretical framework to address the empirical diversity of monitoring arrangements. By mapping strategic environments onto monitoring arrangements, it accounts for who detects noncompliance and who brings it to light. In particular, two factors-the interest alignment between noncompliance victims and their states and the availability of noncompliance victims as low-cost monitors-largely shape the organizational forms of information systems. This simple theory sheds light on a wide range of substantively important treaty regimes.