The United States and Multilateral Treaties: A Policy Puzzle

Why is the US so reluctant to join global multilateral treaties, even when those treaties are in line with its own policies? And how does it decide which treaties to ratify? Finding that the answers to these questions is less straightforward than may be apparent at first glance, Johannes Thimm explores the role of domestic politics in US unilateralism—and concludes that the real puzzle is not why the US supports so few international treaties, but rather how it manages to join any at all.