American treaty handbook
Purpose
This handbook is designed to give you a better understanding of American diplomacy.
Source
It is based on Treaties in Force, a report released by the State Department. This report contains a list of all U.S. treaties and other international agreements in force. The most recent release was January 2020.
In the U.S., a 'treaty' is an international agreement made by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate (requiring a two-thirds vote). An 'executive agreement' is an alternative mechanism, which does not require Senate participation.
However, both are considered treaties based on the Vienna Convention. This handbook applies the broader definition.
Structure
There are two main sections: 1) bilateral and 2) multilateral treaties.
The first section covers U.S. bilateral treaties with fifteen major powers (all countries with a gross domestic product of over one trillion dollars). Along with the U.S., these countries represent over three quarters of the world's economy and well over half the world's population. I'm trying to build a database to include all countries.
The multilateral section covers all U.S. multilateral treaties.
Key Findings
The drop in American diplomacy is not new.
While U.S. diplomatic engagement dropped sharply over the last four years, this trend started decades ago. Since the mid-90s, the U.S. has entered fewer and fewer international agreements. This is a major problem. Debates about what agreements to make, and who to make them with, are fair. But there is no question that diplomatic engagement has a positive impact. America’s ability to take on global challenges rests on its relationships – backed by a strong treaty system.
And, the extent of this drop is masked by a remarkable increase in one area: bilateral defense & security treaties.
While other areas fall, defense continues to rise.
It’s common to hear about the tradeoff between diplomatic and military power – a choice between tapping the State or Defense Department. But this distinction is not that clear. The recent rise of defense & security treaties points less to diplomatic power than to military power. Such agreements are critical to international stability. Yet alone, this risks a dangerous imbalance. Even from a Defense Department perspective, problems in other areas (such as economic or environmental) have a tendency to boil over into their realm.
This imbalance in U.S. bilateral relations is not offset by changes on the multilateral front.
U.S. multilateral engagement has fallen even lower.
Multilateral institutions receive plenty of flak. The United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank all began near the end of World War Two. Many consider these places outdated. Such sentiments accompany calls for U.S. diplomacy to circumvent institutions altogether. But U.S. multilateral treaties are also outdated. From the 80/90s to 00/10s, these treaties are down 35%. This is just one of many signs that American diplomacy is in decline. Regardless of its future role in institutions, the U.S. will need to rediscover its ability to bring many countries to the same table.
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I hope this was interesting! If you have any questions about my work, please feel free to reach out.
