Global Cooperation and the Human Factor in International Relations

This book aims to pave the way for a new interdisciplinary approach to global cooperation research. It does so by bringing in disciplines whose insights about human behaviour might provide a crucial yet hitherto neglected foundation for understanding how and under which conditions global cooperation can succeed.

As the first profoundly interdisciplinary book dealing with global cooperation, the book provides the state of the art on human cooperation in selected disciplines (evolutionary anthropology, decision-sciences, social psychology, complexity sciences), written by leading experts. The book argues that scholars in the field of global governance should know and could learn from what other disciplines tell us about the capabilities and limits of humans to cooperate. It also offers first accounts of interdisciplinary global cooperation research by bringing together cognitive sciences and institutional design literature to learn more about how "better" institutions could look like.

The book draws on social psychology and experimental economy approaches to find out more about the possibilities of a global we-identity and provides an evolutionary perspective on diplomacy. The book also offers reflections on how to deal with the epistemological and methodological challenges that arise when bringing micro, meso and macro levels together.

This book will be of great interest to scholars and postgraduates in International Relations, Global Governance and International Development.