| In light of recent scholarship that hails the credibility of democratic commitments, this dissertation explores the largely ignored issue of why democracies abandon their international pledges. I argue that liberal humanitarian norms are often at the heart of the process. Specifically, I investigate the conditions, related to partner behavior and interest group pressure, under which normatively inspired legislatures generate commitment abandonment. I assess the argument in cases of core United States and British security commitment relations with countries in Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East during the last two centuries. The project makes several contributions to the international relations literature. Most notably, it adds to our understanding of why and how liberal norms matter on issues beyond decisions for war in addition to suggesting ways to amend and, therein, enhance the existing literature on democratic commitment politics. |
