Exit from International Organizations: Costly Negotiation for Institutional Change

Why do states exit international organizations (IOs)?How often does exit from IOs - including voluntary withdrawal and forced suspension - occur?What are the effects of leaving IOs for the exiting state?Despite the importance of membership in IOs, a broader understanding of exit across states, organizations, and time has been limited.Exit from International Organizations addresses these lacunae through a theoretically grounded and empirically systematic study of IO exit.Von Borzyskowski and Vabulas argue that there is a common logic to IO exit which helps explain both its causes and consequences.By examining IO exit across 198 states, 534 IOs, and over a hundred years of history, they show that exit is driven by states' dissatisfaction, preference divergence, and is a strategy to negotiate institutional change.The book also demonstrates that exit is costly because it has reputational consequences for leaving states and significantly affects other forms of international cooperation.