This article conceptualizes the international system as an informational network—where the sovereign units in the system produce and process information, and linkages among units in the system are conduits for information. Building on a substantial literature that documents the diffusion of policies across nations, this article draws on concepts from network analysis to ask a critical question: what governance issues are raised by viewing the international system as an informational network? The author asserts that the core governance challenge is to balance the benefits of eliminating costly reinvention of the wheel, while maintaining continued innovation and minimizing the dissemination of welfare-reducing policies (fads). Increases in the linkages in the system, while improving the availability of information to all actors, may decrease innovation and increase fads.
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