IO history and Research Flashcards
Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni
'’What kills international oranisations? When and why international organisations terminate’’
IGO
intergovernmetnal organization
ways for IOs to die
5
- Expiration
- Dissolution
- Replacement
- Merger
- Disuse
Power volatility
- Gunitsky
- annual changes in relative power among major states
Causes for IO death
6
-Geopolitical/exogenous shocks: Major shifts in international power balances
- major political and economic changes/shocks (reduce collective utility to states of adhering to existing institutions)
- institutional features (adaptability/resilience)
- small membership
- narrow scope
- low centralisation
functionalist theories
states create IOs to reduce the transaction cost of cooperation, states are expected to abandon IOs if they no longer seem to present efficient solutions to joint cooperation problems
‘liability of youth’ / time and sequencing
younger IGOs have a higher mortality rate due to limited:
- learning
- adaptation
- coordination effects
!relative age matters: early developments become embedded in the IGos, which influences mortality rates
historical institutionalism
IOs are subject to strong lock-in effects from positive feedback mechanisms; the longer an IO exists, the more costly it is to cease to exist
- Institutions adjust their policy and routines in coordination with IOs
the influence of scope/function on mortality rates of IOs
IGOs with broader mandates are more adaptable on average
mortality rates high politics v. technological IGOs
IGOs that deal with high politics matters have high mortality rates.
technological IGOs have a low mortality rate (fulfil technological needs in times of crises + less subject to political shifts)
!!!!Eilstrup-Sangiovanni has no conclusive finding: in some cases this theory doesn’t work (e.g. high morality rates technical IGOs during the Great Depression)
survival of IOs founded prior to 1914
first-comer status may play a role in the survival of these IOs
European Commission for the Danube / CED
6
- typical death profile
- one of the Euroepan River Commissions (e.g. also the Central Commission for Navigation of the Rhine)
- 1856-1939
- founded to keep European waterways open to traffic and commerce
- dissolution in 1940 due to WW2; germany found the Treaty of Versaille unfair
- after the war: efforts to re-establish (USSR blocked them)
Julia Gray
2018
Life, Death or Zombie? The vitality of international organizations
- looks at economic IOs between 1995 and 2015
- finds that IO research is biased: only pays attention to actions of IOs, which doesn’t include the study of ‘zombie-IOs’ as they don’t act anymore
zombie IO (Julia Gray)
stage between living/functioning IO and terminated IO
Gray 2 influences on the survival of IOs
- the more bureaucratic autonomy, the higher the chances of survival
- the more attractive the locations of the IOs, the higher the chance of survival
internationalism of the 19th century
6
- active transnational civil society
- participation in IOs seen as sign of power
- global governance in the field of technical coordination
- assumption that internatinoal cooperation leads to peace
- difference between IOs, NGOs, etc. not yet distinguishable
- IOs were ambivalent (instruments of western imperialism + ‘‘back door’’ access to power for non-wetern states and marginalized political groups
internationalism
contemporary ideological basis of transnational movements
Congress of Vienna
- 1814-1815
- start of political internationalism
1860-1865
take-off period of IOs (agnecy status, stability, visibility, interconnectedness as a tool of power)
cause: industrialisation