HOW DO INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS MATTER - THE DOMESTIC IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL RULES AND NORMS

Generally, scholars of international relations have attempted to show that international rules or norms influence state behavior by locating their causal significance at the level of state interactions. However , international rules and norms also affect a country's policy choice by way of the actions of domestic political actors. In particular, gov ernment officials and societal interest groups can appeal to an intern ational rule or norm in an effort to fur ther their objectives in the national arena. Through such appeals, international rules and norms ca n become incorporated into the policy debate, and, under some conditio ns, may ultimately affect national policy choice. The article identifi es two factors that condition the extent to which an actor's appeal to an international rule or norm will influence state behavior: the dome stic structural context and the domestic salience of the international rule or norm. This argument is explored through an examination of how international rules and norms have affected U.S. policy choices in bo th the economic and security realms. The security case examines the im pact of President Bush's appeal to the norm of collective security to justify a response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The economic case covers the U.S. semiconductor industry's efforts to persuade the Reaga n administration to obtain Japanese liberalization of its trade practi ces with rePard to semiconductor devices.