This article is an attempt to adapt Hirschman's theory to International Relations. Proposing a differentiation in preferences from the states inside international institutions, the model points to the dynamics generated when institutional quality declines. While strong states will try to reform the institutions through threats of exit, intermediary and weak states will have few alternatives. Three cases involving the United States are described and analyzed.
Institutionalism; International Institutions; Institutional Decline; Credible Threats; American Foreign Policy
