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Nesting is an idea in international relations theory which posits that advanced democracies operating within political and economic alliances are more likely to seek absolute, rather than relative, gains as their economic health is “nested” with other advanced democracies in transnational alliances. In a nested arrangement, states are satisfied to see the success of other states within the same alliance as mutual success contributes to combined security. The idea was first proposed by Vinod Aggarwal and is most associated with neoliberalism. As a concept, nesting is generally incompatible with a realist understanding of the international system, which holds that states will not be indifferent to the gains of other states as gains by one state represent absolute losses by others.
Beyond the state level, inter-governmental organizations can, themselves, be nested within other inter-governmental organizations. For instance, the European Union is, itself, nested within the World Trade Organization. Study of institutional nesting is currently limited.
An example of nesting in practice may be the case of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). While some academics contend the CIS is a tool the Russian Federation uses to apply its regional hegemony, Michael Slobodchikoff of Troy University has alternatively argued that smaller CIS powers influence the state of regional cooperation, including concessions by Russia, by acting through the CIS. Slobodchikoff explains this as a case of nesting, contending that concessions would otherwise be unachievable were weak states to act independently through a bilateral framework with Russia.