Regional trade agreements (RTAs) are trade institutions that can also be security institutions. Trade institutions specify rules for trade among members. Security institutions specify rules that prescribe how member states jointly address mutual security concerns among the membership. Though it is little known, RTA treaties may, and often do, include military alliance agreements and security components within their framework. RTA membership often consists of former and present enemies as well as longtime rivals that do experience militarized conflict. Scholarly inquiry has analyzed the conditions under which regional trade agreements diminish militarized conflict indirectly through increased economic interdependence due to RTA-induced trade liberalization. The researchers in this investigation examine the direct impacts of RTA structure on conflict via the security components built into the structure of the RTA institution. Conflict among member states may lead to the transformation of RTAs into security institutions. RTAs as security institutions not only influence the occurrence and severity of militarized conflict among its members, but such belligerence between members or in the region leads to institutional change within RTAs. RTAs become security institutions in part because their members face immediate and pressing security concerns. Hence, it is necessary not only to see how RTAs influence conflict but also how conflict influences the RTA. This implies a theory of international institutions, and in particular of institutional change, that the researchers develop and empirically test. The objectives of this study are two-fold: to develop and empirically test a model of (1) how variations in RTA security structure shape militarized conflict among member states and (2) how militarized conflict among member states alters RTA security structures during the period1950-2000. To accomplish these objectives, project activities include extending the existing RTA data set from African states and security integration in their twenty-plus regional trade agreements to all RTAs in the world during this time period. The broader impact of this project extends to integration of education and discovery as well as diversity. In terms of integration into education, graduate research assistants will be trained in the research process and present results at meetings; a new dataset will be incorporated into class assignments. Diversity is integrated through personnel: an African-American female assistant professor as the principle investigator and results will be disseminated at the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Research infrastructure will be enhanced by products produced from project activities including a new data set. On the policy side, light will be shed on the consequences of policymakers using trade organizations to address regional security. International institutions are involved in dealing with almost all conflicts in the world today. It is imperative for diplomats and leaders to understand how institutions are used to mediate conflicts, and how conflicts are likely to put institutional change on their agendas.
