The book addresses these lacunae through a theoretically grounded and empirically systematic study of IO exit. The authors argue that there is a common logic to IO exit which helps explain both its causes and consequences. By examining IO exit across 198 states, 534 IOs, and over a hundred years of history, they show that exit is driven by states' dissatisfaction, preference divergence, and is a strategy to negotiate institutional change. The book also demonstrates that exit is costly because it has reputational consequences for leaving states and significantly affects other forms of international cooperation.

The book won the 2026 Chadwick Alger Prize of the International Studies Association (best book on international organizations broadly defined). It has also recently been shortlisted for the Susan Strange Best Book Award of the British International Studies Association (best book in international studies).

About the speaker

Inken von Borzyskowski is Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on the domestic politics of international relations with an emphasis on international organizations and their effect on domestic conflict and elections. Her research has been awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship and a Philip Leverhulme Prize, best paper awards from the American Political Science Association and the European Consortium for Political Research, and a Dissertation Prize from the International Studies Association. She received her PhD at UW-Madison; she also spent a year at Duke. Before joining Oxford, she spent four years at University College London and four years at Florida State University.