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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › List_of_treaties_unsigned_or_unratified_by_the_United_States
List of treaties unsigned or unratified by the United States - Wikipedia
2 weeks ago - (Technically, the Senate itself does not ratify treaties, it only approves or rejects resolutions of ratification submitted by the Committee on Foreign Relations; if approved, the United States exchanges the instruments of ratification with the foreign power(s)). Between 1789 and 1990, the Senate approved more than 1,500 treaties, rejected 21, and 85 treaties were withdrawn because the Senate did not act on them.
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Just Security
justsecurity.org › home › reengaging on treaties and other international agreements (part i): president donald trump’s rejection of international law
Reengaging on Treaties and Other International Agreements (Part I): President Donald Trump’s Rejection of International Law
September 21, 2023 - Specifically, Trump has withdrawn from an unprecedented five Article II treaties in three years: Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty: The United States signed in December 1987 and ratified in June 1988.
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THE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS REVIEW
iar-gwu.org › blog › 2zb4m98no5nwmvw2ewxzh4qj11v4ot
U.S. Treaty Commitments, NATO, and Congressional Responsibility — THE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS REVIEW
November 3, 2025 - ... Under the Trump Administration, the United States has withdrawn from a variety of international treaties and agreements, such as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Paris Climate Agreement, INF Treaty, and Open Skies Treaty.
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Congress.gov
congress.gov › crs-product › R48868
Separation of Powers and NATO Withdrawal | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
In what might be understood as ... the President from unilaterally withdrawing from a treaty (specifically, the North Atlantic Treaty).81 Section 1250A of the 2024 NDAA provides that the President "shall not suspend, ...
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U.S. Senate
senate.gov › legislative › RejectedTreaties.htm
Rejected Treaties - U.S. Senate
1 Approved on May 26, 1960, with vote of 77 to 4; vote immediately followed by motion to reconsider, and on second vote treaty was rejected 49 to 30; second motion to reconsider was introduced on May 27, 1960, but was not taken up; treaty remained on calendar of Committee on Foreign Relations ...
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White House
whitehouse.gov › home › news › fact sheets › withdrawing the united states from international organizations, conventions, and treaties that are contrary to the interests of the united states
Withdrawing the United States from International Organizations, Conventions, and Treaties that Are Contrary to the Interests of the United States – The White House
January 7, 2026 - Section 1. Purpose. (a) On February 4, 2025, I issued Executive Order 14199 (Withdrawing the United States from and Ending Funding to Certain United Nations Organizations and Reviewing United States Support to All International Organizations). That Executive Order directed the Secretary of State, in consultation with the United States Representative to the United Nations, to conduct a review of all international intergovernmental organizations of which the United States is a member and provides any type of funding or other support, and all conventions and treaties to which the United States is a party, to determine which organizations, conventions, and treaties are contrary to the interests of the United States. The Secretary of State has reported his findings as required by Executive Order 14199. (b) I have considered the Secretary of State’s report and, after deliberating with my Cabinet, have determined that it is contrary to the interests of the United States to remain a member of,
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Earth.Org
earth.org › trump-withdraws-us-from-66-international-organizations-including-pivotal-climate-treaties
US Withdraws From 66 Int'l Bodies, Including Key Climate Treaties
January 9, 2026 - Established in 1992, the UNFCCC serves as the international structure for efforts to slow down climate change, providing the foundations for key treaties including the Paris Agreement, from which Trump has twice withdrawn.
Find elsewhere
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Arms Control Association
armscontrol.org › act › 2020-12 › news › us-completes-open-skies-treaty-withdrawal
U.S. Completes Open Skies Treaty Withdrawal | Arms Control Association
December 1, 2020 - December 2020 By Kingston Reif and Shannon Bugos · The United States formally withdrew from the 1992 Open Skies Treaty on Nov. 22 despite domestic and international pressure to remain party to the accord, including from President-elect Joe Biden and numerous U.S. allies
Top answer
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59

I only have an indirect argument:

  • The US is part of far more treaties than any other country (7,181 bilateral treaties; the next most active nation is France with 3,707 bilateral treaties). Somewhat predictably, the US has far more bilateral as percentage of its total treaties (87% of treaties entered by US being bilateral) than an "average" country (for which this fraction is 45%). Ref for these facts Miles & Posner (2008) "Which States Enter into Treaties, and Why?"
  • Bilateral treaties get unilaterally exited more often than multilateral treaties do cf. Helfer (2005) "Exiting Treaties":

    Not surprisingly, there have been far more ratifications of treaties (32,021) than denunciations and withdrawals (1547) since 1945. [...] of the 5416 multilateral agreements concluded after 1945, 191, or 3.5%, have been denounced at least once. In light of the 1547 denunciations filed during this same sixty year period, this small percentage suggests that a few multilateral agreements have been denounced by multiple states.

As a consequence, it is likely (but not certain) that the US unilaterally exited more treaties than an "average" country, not just in absolute number but also as a proportion of treaties entered.

If someone else can find a direct analysis... by all means, that would be a better answer. Clearly a database exist (with per country data) and was used by Helfer, but it doesn't seem to be public. Barely quantitatively, Helfer's paper only says about the US aggregate behavior:

The unilateralist behavior of the United States provides a salient example. The United States has recently refrained from ratifying— or has withdrawn from—numerous multilateral agreements that are widely ratified by other nations and that it at one time championed. These treaties include the Kyoto Protocol, the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, the Landmines Convention, the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, the Convention on Biological Diversity, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and, most recently, the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control and the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. By remaining outside these treaties through non-entry or exit, the United States has, according to many observers, cast doubt on its commitment to multilateral cooperation.


And an important comment on another answer, which might get missed (because there are so many comments under it): regarding the US Constitution Treaty Clause:

The body of law governing U.S. foreign policy recognizes three mechanisms by which the United States enters into binding international obligations. The term "treaty" is used in a more restricted legal sense [in the US] than in international law. U.S. law distinguishes what it calls treaties from congressional-executive agreements and executive agreements. All three classes are considered treaties under international law; they are distinct only from the perspective of internal United States law. Distinctions among the three concern their method of ratification: by two-thirds of the Senate, by normal legislative process, or by the President alone, respectively. The Treaty Clause empowers the President to make or enter into treaties with the "advice and consent" of two-thirds of the Senate. In contrast, normal legislation becomes law after approval by simple majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives and the signature of the President.

And from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_agreement

In the United States, executive agreements are binding internationally if they are negotiated and entered into under the president's authority in foreign policy, as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, or from a prior act of Congress. For instance, as commander-in-chief the President negotiates and enters into status of forces agreements (SOFAs), which govern the treatment and disposition of U.S. forces stationed in other nations. The president cannot, however, enter unilaterally into executive agreements on matters that are beyond his constitutional authority. In such instances, an agreement would need to be in the form of a congressional-executive agreement, or a treaty with Senate advice and consent.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in United States v. Pink (1942), held that international executive agreements validly made have the same legal status as treaties and did not require Senate approval.

And Pink has been reaffirmed more recently in Dames & Moore v. Regan:

More recently, in Dames & Moore v. Regan, the Court relied upon, inter alia, the Pink case to sustain President Carter’s suspension of claims pending in American courts against Iran as required by the Hostage Release Agreement of 1981, supra, and, more directly, by Executive order. In light of Pink, the Court indicated that ‘‘prior cases * * * have recognized that the President does have some measure of power to enter into executive agreements without obtaining the advice and consent of the Senate.’’

So simply relying on the US Constitution notion of "treaty" is misleading when there are two more categories under US law that are also treaties under international law.

And the Congressional source on which that Wikipedia page is mostly based also says

The Constitution is silent on procedures for modifying or terminating treaties, and agreement has not been reached between the branches on a single proper mode. [...]

Twice in recent years the method of terminating a treaty [in the narrow sense, i.e. one approved by 2/3 of the Senate] has raised serious controversy within the United States. In 1978, President Carter terminated the defense treaty with the Republic of China [Taiwan] without the concurrence of either the Senate or Congress when he established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China.
In 1977, the new Panama Canal Treaty terminated the 1903, 1936, and 1955 treaties with Panama. Although a new treaty was approved by the Senate, some contended that the termination of the earlier treaties required an act of Congress, thus including approval by the House of Representatives as well as the Senate.

It also talks of controversies of treaty (again in the narrow sense) modification and reinterpretation by the Executive, which are more numerous (a bit too long to quote here).

Also some treaties (in the narrow sense, i.e. 2/3 Senate approved) have an explicit clause that allows the President to terminate them; e.g. KORUS:

If the President does invoke Article 24.5, and no further action is taken, KORUS will terminate 180 days after such notice is given.

And enough scholars think that the President can exit a treaty by himself, regardless of clauses in the treaty:

Whereas it was generally understood throughout the nineteenth century that the termination of treaties required congressional involvement, the consensus on this issue disappeared in the early parts of the twentieth century, and today it is widely (although not uniformly) accepted that presidents have a unilateral power of treaty termination.

This after Goldwater v. Carter (on Taiwan defense exit), Kucinich v. Bush (on ABM exit) etc.

Finally, there's the issue of (extended) provisional application of treaties (in the narrow sense) that have been signed but not ratified, e.g. (quoting from Congressional service again):

An example of a treaty pending in the Senate that has been provisionally applied by executive agreement is the maritime boundary agreement between the United States and Cuba, signed December 16, 1977. Originally, an executive agreement, by exchange of notes on April 27, 1977, had established a modus vivendi on a provisional maritime boundary to serve during that year while negotiations were underway. The treaty signed on December 16, 1977, contained a provision that the parties agree to apply the terms of the agreement ‘‘provisionally’’ for a period of 2 years from January 1, 1978. According to the Department of State, ‘‘this agreement constituted an executive agreement contained within the text of the treaty.’’ The treaty was transmitted to the Senate on January 23, 1979, and debated in the Senate, but final action was not taken. The treaty is still pending in the committee. [as of 2001] The provisional application was subsequently extended for additional periods, most recently by an exchange of notes of December 30, 1997 and March 30, 1998.

So such a "treaty" is applied for 20+ years and then denounced (say by a new president) does it really look like nothing happened, no exit from the "treaty" from the viewpoint of the international community (or other party to the treaty)?!

And the middle category of congressional-executive agreements is also exteremely important in practice:

In part because the enumerated powers of Congress and the president have been interpreted broadly, most agreements that are proposed as treaties could also have been proposed as congressional-executive agreements. For that reason, the U.S. government has frequently chosen to use congressional-executive agreements rather than treaties for controversial agreements that are unlikely to gain the required supermajority in the Senate. Examples of contentious proposals addressed in the form of congressional-executive agreements include the 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the agreement whereby the United States became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995.

And yes, these congressional-executive agreements are constitutional too because of Field v. Clark. NAFTA was challeged in Made in the USA Foundation v. United States, but this challenge was stopped in the Eleventh Circuit, which cited Field v. Clark (among other things) in their decision.

The congressional-executive agreements are actually how most of the US international-relations sausage is made nowadays (quoting the Congressional service again)

In the period since 1939 executive agreements [this refers to both congressional-executive and just executive] have comprised more than 90 percent of the international agreements concluded. [...] Most executive agreements are concluded under the authority of a statute [and are called congressional-executive in other places; ...] 88.3 percent of international agreements reached between 1946 and 1972 were based at least partly on statutory authority [meaning they were congressional-executive rather than purely executive].

So you can't just pretend these don't matter just because they're not called treaties in the US law.

So arguing from "first principles" by just quoting the Constitution is a pretty poor way to come to any conclusion on this question because: (i) what is actually a treaty in US vs international law and (ii) termination/exit procedures are unclear in US law (for some categories) and varied in practice.

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52

No

Actual ratified treaties have the full force of U.S. law and it is very rare for the U.S. to withdraw from them.

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution

The problem with the Paris Accords and the Iran nuclear deal is that they were not actual ratified treaties. They were just informal agreements made by the executive which did not have the authority to make binding agreements in the first place. Both the executive and the other parties of the agreements had full knowledge at the time that the U.S. would never ratify them and that much of Congress strongly disagreed with their terms. Only Congress can actually ratify a treaty. The U.S. withdrawing from an actual treaty is extremely rare.

But those considerations are irrelevant to countries that sign a treaty with someone, they are mostly interested in whether their counterpart will honor that treaty or not. If they commit to something and the other party states I did not actually have the authority to commit without another branch of my government then how will the next treaty be approached?

But that's just it, if you're using "sign a treaty" to mean officially and legally agreeing to its terms - more formally known as ratification - they haven't signed any treaty. They've made an agreement with someone who had no authority to commit the country to the terms of that agreement, knowing that this is the case and that the agreement carries no actual commitment or force of law.

If they want to approach a treaty in the future, then they should approach it as an actual treaty to be ratified by Congress, not just an informal agreement with someone who can't commit to anything past his own term in office (and many things not even then, as he can be overruled by Congress and/or courts.)

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U.S. Senate
senate.gov › about › powers-procedures › treaties.htm
U.S. Senate: About Treaties
The Senate has considered and approved for ratification all but a small number of treaties negotiated by the president and his representatives. In some cases, when Senate leadership believed a treaty lacked sufficient support for approval, the Senate simply did not vote on the treaty and it was eventually withdrawn ...
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Quartz
qz.com › 1273510 › all-the-international-agreements-the-us-has-broken-before-the-iran-deal
It’s not just Trump. The US has always broken its treaties, pacts and promises
July 20, 2022 - According to the US national archives, 374 treaties (pdf, p.4) signed between the US and Native American Tribes from 1772 to 1867 were ratified. Of these, many were not respected: Only one article of the Pickering Treaty, or Treaty of Canadaigua of 1794, for instance, has been observed.
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Yale Law Journal
yalelawjournal.org › forum › presidential-power-to-terminate-international-agreements
Presidential Power to Terminate International Agreements | Yale Law Journal
November 12, 2018 - Less than four decades ago, a D.C. ... withdrawal from a host of bilateral and multilateral arrangements, including the Paris Climate Agreement; the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA); the U.N....
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Osmarks
a.osmarks.net › content › wikipedia_en_all_maxi_2020-08 › A › List_of_treaties_unsigned_or_unratified_by_the_United_States
List of treaties unsigned or unratified by the United States
Among these treaties, a few have ... to ratify them problematic.[1] Among the treaties are the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Ottawa Treaty....
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The Revelator
therevelator.org › home › 4 major environmental treaties the u.s. never ratified — but should
4 Major Environmental Treaties the U.S. Never Ratified — But Should • The Revelator
November 8, 2022 - Biden’s move was hailed by world leaders and applauded by environmentalists at home. But the climate convention wasn’t the only global environmental agreement from which the country has been conspicuously absent. Here are four international treaties that have been ratified by most of the world’s countries, but not the United States.
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Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › List_of_the_United_States_treaties
List of the United States treaties - Wikipedia
2 weeks ago - 1901 – Hay–Pauncefote Treaty – nullified Clayton–Bulwer Treaty in exchange for free access to build a canal across Central America · 1901 – Boxer Protocol, Peace Agreement between the Great Powers and China – one of the Unequal Treaties with China
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Brookings
brookings.edu › home › congress’s control over treaties
Congress’s Control Over Treaties | Brookings
November 19, 2025 - President Trump’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the JCPOA or Iran Nuclear Deal), a sole executive agreement, raised no constitutional issues. Unilaterally entered into, the JCPOA could be unilaterally withdrawn from.
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United Nations
treaties.un.org › Pages › PageNotFound.aspx
UNTC
Ceci est la page d'accueil de la Collection des traités des Nations Unies.
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Human Rights Watch
hrw.org › news › 2009 › 07 › 24 › united-states-ratification-international-human-rights-treaties
United States Ratification of International Human Rights Treaties | Human Rights Watch
March 28, 2023 - This document provides an overview of the following treaties and their importance to the United States: Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) ... None of these treaties yet have been ratified, and only two - CEDAW and the CRC-have been signed by the US.
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Explained
everything.explained.today › List_of_treaties_unsigned_or_unratified_by_the_United_States
List of treaties unsigned or unratified by the United States explained
Among the treaties unsigned or ... against Torture (OPCAT).[2] The United States is also one of the few countries not to have ratified the Kyoto Protocol.[3] According to a 2014 analysis by The New Republic, the ratification of a significant number of treaties signed ...