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International treaties have mostly failed to produce their intended effects.

ABSTRACT: There are over 250,000 international treaties that aim to foster global cooperation. But are treaties actually helpful for addressing global challenges? This systematic field-wide evidence synthesis of 224 primary studies and meta-analysis of the higher-quality 82 studies finds treaties have mostly failed to produce their intended effects. The only exceptions are treaties governing international trade and finance, which consistently produced intended effects. We also found evidence that impactful treaties achieve their effects through socialization and normative processes rather than longer-term legal processes and that enforcement mechanisms are the only modifiable treaty design choice with the potential to improve the effectiveness of treaties governing environmental, human rights, humanitarian, maritime, and security policy domains. This evidence synthesis raises doubts about the value of international treaties that neither regulate trade or finance nor contain enforcement mechanisms.

SUBMITTER: Hoffman SJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9372541 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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International treaties have mostly failed to produce their intended effects.

Hoffman Steven J SJ Baral Prativa P Rogers Van Katwyk Susan S Sritharan Lathika L Hughsam Matthew M Randhawa Harkanwal H Lin Gigi G Campbell Sophie S Campus Brooke B Dantas Maria M Foroughian Neda N Groux Gaëlle G Gunn Elliot E Guyatt Gordon G Habibi Roojin R Karabit Mina M Karir Aneesh A Kruja Krista K Lavis John N JN Lee Olivia O Li Binxi B Nagi Ranjana R Naicker Kiyuri K Røttingen John-Arne JA Sahar Nicola N Srivastava Archita A Tejpar Ali A Tran Maxwell M Zhang Yu-Qing YQ Zhou Qi Q Poirier Mathieu J P MJP

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20220801 32

There are over 250,000 international treaties that aim to foster global cooperation. But are treaties actually helpful for addressing global challenges? This systematic field-wide evidence synthesis of 224 primary studies and meta-analysis of the higher-quality 82 studies finds treaties have mostly failed to produce their intended effects. The only exceptions are treaties governing international trade and finance, which consistently produced intended effects. We also found evidence that impactfu ...[more]

PMID: 35914153

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Project description:BackgroundThere is increasing awareness among researchers and policymakers of the potential for healthcare interventions to have consequences beyond those initially intended. These unintended consequences or "spillover effects" result from the complex features of healthcare organisation and delivery and can either increase or decrease overall effectiveness. Their potential influence has important consequences for the design and evaluation of implementation strategies and for decision-making. However, consideration of spillovers remains partial and unsystematic. We develop a comprehensive framework for the identification and measurement of spillover effects resulting from changes to the way in which healthcare services are organised and delivered.MethodsWe conducted a scoping review to map the existing literature on spillover effects in health and healthcare interventions and used the findings of this review to develop a comprehensive framework to identify and measure spillover effects.ResultsThe scoping review identified a wide range of different spillover effects, either experienced by agents not intentionally targeted by an intervention or representing unintended effects for targeted agents. Our scoping review revealed that spillover effects tend to be discussed in papers only when they are found to be statistically significant or might account for unexpected findings, rather than as a pre-specified feature of evaluation studies. This hinders the ability to assess all potential implications of a given policy or intervention. We propose a taxonomy of spillover effects, classified based on the outcome and the unit experiencing the effect: within-unit, between-unit, and diagonal spillover effects. We then present the INTENTS framework: Intended Non-intended TargEted Non-Targeted Spillovers. The INTENTS framework considers the units and outcomes which may be affected by an intervention and the mechanisms by which spillover effects are generated.ConclusionsThe INTENTS framework provides a structured guide for researchers and policymakers when considering the potential effects that implementation strategies may generate, and the steps to take when designing and evaluating such interventions. Application of the INTENTS framework will enable spillover effects to be addressed appropriately in future evaluations and decision-making, ensuring that the full range of costs and benefits of interventions are correctly identified.

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International treaties have mostly failed to produce their intended effects.

Publications

International treaties have mostly failed to produce their intended effects.

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