As in life, trust matters in international politics. Vital for cooperation and reciprocation, trusting someone nevertheless leaves one vulnerable should they break faith and pursue self-serving goals. As US political scientist Andrew Kydd recognised, trust is the belief that someone “prefers mutual cooperation to exploiting and suckering others”.
Two versions of trust matter in international relations. Strategic trust, in the form of institutionalised agreements and organisations which provide certainty – as well as material incentives – to encourage people and nations to honour their commitments. And moralistic trust, based on what social scientists call an “implicit theory of personality” that involves people making everyday judgements regarding a person’s character and integrity.
A brief look at the liberal post-war economic order shows how trust has proved fundamental. The Bretton Woods system of multilateral institutions that developed after the second world war, including the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organization, created a rules-based consistency for mutual benefit.
