The politics of IO performance: A framework

Some international organizations (IOs) are subject to constant criticism for producing poor results while others are praised for accomplishing difficult tasks despite political and resource constraints. Indeed, IO performance varies substantially over time and across tasks, and yet the international relations literature has devoted little attention to why this occurs. This article provides a framework for studying IO performance. After addressing some of the distinct challenges of conceptualizing and analyzing performance in the context of IOs, we discuss the tradeoffs of using different performance metrics—from process indicators to outcome indicators—and present a typology of factors that influence performance. Finally, we discuss research strategies for those interested in studying performance rigorously. The policy relevance of studying IO performance is clear: only if we understand why some IOs perform better than others can we begin to improve their performance in a systematic way. As many organizations come under pressure to reform, while at the same time taking on new and more complicated tasks, scholars should be actively engaged in debates surrounding IO performance and its role in effective governance at the international level.     

Presidential mandates and ministerial institutions: Summitry of the Americas, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

The periodic Summits of the Americas are the highest form of regional multilateralism in the Western Hemisphere, but summits lack their own means to implement their mandates. Hence, Summit Plans of Action assign many initiatives to existing regional institutions, especially the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). But a notable difference exists in the character and degree to which these two institutions have responded to their unfunded mandates, in that the OAS has become “nested” under the hierarchy of summitry, while the IDB has eschewed subordination in favor of a “parallel” relationship pursuing largely convergent activities. Relying on extensive interviews and reviews of open source and internal documents, six variables are found to explain this differential response: ministerial authorities, competing mandates, institutional missions, internal structures, membership and leadership. Yet for both regional institutions there remains a wide gap between the directives emanating from the Summits and what the two regional institutions have been—and could be—accomplishing. The study concludes with recommendations to improve institutional design. JEL codes L31 · F42 · F02 · D73 · F1     

Performance under ambiguity: International organization performance in UN peacekeeping

This article argues that ambiguity—indeterminacy between alternative interpretations of a phenomenon—is inherent in the peace operations field, and makes defining and assessing the UN’s performance problematic. Applying Gutner and Thompson’s framework for international organization performance (IOP) research to UN peacekeeping, it argues further that the relationship between process performance and outcomes in peacekeeping is irreducibly ambiguous, and that ambiguity has significant implications for efforts to measure and improve peacekeeping performance. To demonstrate this, the article reviews methods employed by the UN to measure its peacekeeping performance, arguing that the primary method employed—results-based budgeting (RBB)—is inherently unable to cope with the challenges of performance ambiguity. Its adoption and continued use despite its evident shortcomings are due to RBB’s legitimacy in the wider organizational field of international public management in which the UN Secretariat, and UN peacekeeping, perform. Finally, the article considers recent efforts to improve process performance in UN peacekeeping, and discuss the ways in which so-called ‘integration’ reforms central to such efforts are a means of reducing and managing the ambiguity inherent in peacekeeping.     

The World Trade Organization at work: Performance in a member-driven milieu

This article discusses performance in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Applying the framework by Gutner and Thompson and inspired by principal-agent theory, it is argued that existing studies have underspecified the institutional milieu that affects performance. The WTO represents a member-driven organization where Members are part of the international organization (IO) (e.g., through rule-making) and at the same time act outside the IO (e.g., through implementation). Thus, a narrow reading of the IO (focusing on the civil servants and the Director-General and his staff) will not suffice to understand IO performance in the WTO context. Selected evidence is presented to illustrate aspects of the WTO’s inner-working and the institutional milieu of performance. In addition, the article discusses a number of performance parameters, including the relationship between Secretariat autonomy and performance, the role of information, and the mechanisms of performance aggregation. The article ends by cautioning against quick fixes to the system to improve performance.     

Boards of directors in international organizations: A framework for understanding the dilemmas of institutional design

This article develops an analytical framework for studying international organization (IO) boards of directors and applies the framework to a sample of 12 international organizations. It argues that the boards of IOs are asked by their political masters to play four distinct roles: (1) political counterweight, (2) performance police, (3) democratic forum, and (4) strategic thinker. Because there are trade-offs among them, no IO board can play all four roles effectively. Policymakers must therefore choose among them, and they must make choices of institutional design accordingly. The article also shows how in practice, international organizations fall into three governance “models” based on the characteristics of their boards of directors. Each model has a different combination of strengths and weaknesses. The analysis suggests that because trade-offs are inescapable, state actors sometimes willingly surrender a measure of control in order to strengthen other aspects of institutional performance. IO autonomy is often not something that surprises or annoys governments, but rather something that was been built into the institutional design as the result of a conscious trade-off.     

Cooling the earth? The changing priorities of EU–Asia technology cooperation

External crises such as the Bird Flu epidemic, as well as severe environmental problems, are changing overall attitudes towards research in human health and the environment. At present, the EU is putting pressure on developing countries in Asia and elsewhere to increase their environmental capacities and put forward methods of environmental management that support innovation and competitiveness. They are also being encouraged to participate in the Kyoto protocol and Bali processes on climate change. This paper aims to address the current issues faced by the EU in promoting environmentally friendly technologies in Southeast Asia, as well as to examine the opportunities for technological cooperation between Europe and Asia. It will use Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam—some of the EU’s chosen recipients of official development assistance in the region—as case studies, in order to examine how these countries implement policies that incorporate environmental technology strategies designed to promote sustainable development. It will also attempt to identify the type of actions that are being pursued by their respective governments, with the support of the EU and its member states. Finally, the paper will suggest which types of environmentally friendly technologies and best practice could be transferred from Europe to Southeast Asia, and to the wider Asian region. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the ‘EU–Asia Relations: A Critical Review’ conference at the Jean Monnet European Centre of Excellence at the University of Melbourne, 27–28 March 2008. I would like to express my gratitude to the conference participants for their comments and suggestions.

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Beyond 'Do No Harm': The Challenge of Constructing Ethical Relationships in Refugee Research

This paper highlights some of the central ethical challengesinvolved in undertaking social science research with refugeesin conflict and crisis situations. It focuses on two main setsof challenges: first, the difficulties of constructing an ethicalconsent process and obtaining genuinely informed consent; andsecond, taking fully into account and responding to refugeeparticipants' capacities for autonomy. The authors also discussthe challenges involved in applying the central normative principlesgoverning ethics review processes—the principles of beneficence,integrity, respect for persons, autonomy and justice—tothe context of refugee research. It is argued that researchersshould seek ways to move beyond harm minimization as a standardfor ethical research and recognize an obligation to design andconduct research projects that aim to bring about reciprocalbenefits for refugee participants and/or communities. Some ofthe methodological issues raised by this analysis are discussedin the conclusion.     

Trade, institutions, and the timing of GATT/WTO accession in post-colonial states

Prior to 1995, when the World Trade Organization (WTO) superseded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), a number of states took advantage of GATT Article XXVI:5(c), which allowed them—as former colonies or component territories of existing GATT members—to quickly and simply join the multilateral trade regime. The speed with which these post-colonial accessions took place, however, varied widely: some states joined immediately upon independence, while others joined much later. Still other post-colonial states passed on this opportunity, only to subsequently begin the longer, more onerous accession process required of other GATT/WTO applicants. Our paper seeks to explain this variation in the timing of post-colonial states’ accession to the GATT/WTO. We argue that three key variables explain the timing of accession decisions: 1) a country’s trade ties with existing member-states; 2) its existing preferential trade agreement (PTA) commitments; and 3) its domestic political institutions—specifically, the country’s level of democracy. Furthermore, we argue that the effects of these variables are conditional upon each other: post-colonial countries with more extensive trade ties to existing member-states were more likely to accede rapidly under Article XXVI:5(c), but only under specific conditions—namely, when they had not already locked in ties with key trading partners through bilateral or regional PTAs, and when they were governed by a more democratic regime. We test this argument empirically using an original dataset of 61 post-colonial states from 1951 to 2004. Our results strongly support this explanation of GATT/WTO accession and help to clarify the pattern of participation in the multilateral trading system that we have observed over the last half-century.     

Female Peacekeepers and Gender Balancing: Token Gestures or Informed Policymaking?

Since the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1325 (2000), which is referenced in most of the mandates for peacekeeping authorizations and renewals as of its adoption, UN peacekeeping forces have begun a process of gender balancing. While we have seen an increase in the numbers of female peacekeepers during the decade 2000–2010 and variation in the distribution patterns of female military personnel, we do not know if female military peacekeepers are deploying to areas that are safest or to areas with the greatest need for gender-balanced international involvement. Because the decision-making authority in the allocation of peacekeeping forces rests with the troop-contributing countries, which might not have bought into the gender balancing and mainstreaming initiatives mandated by the UN Security Council, we propose and find evidence that female military personnel tend to deploy to areas where there is least risk. They tend not to deploy where they may be most needed—where sexual violence and gender equity has been a major problem—and we find only a modest effect of having specific language in the mandates related to gender issues.     

International regulation without international government: Improving IO performance through orchestration

International organizations (IOs) have been widely criticized as ineffective. Yet scholars and practitioners assessing IO performance frequently focus on traditional modes of governance such as treaties and inter-state dispute-resolution mechanisms. When they observe poor performance, moreover, they often prescribe a strengthening of those same activities. We call this reliance on traditional state-based mechanisms “International Old Governance” (IOG). A better way to understand and improve IO performance is to consider the full range of ways in which IOs can and do operate—including, increasingly, by reaching out to private actors and institutions, collaborating with them, and supporting and shaping their activities. Such actions are helping to develop an intricate global network of public, private and mixed institutions and norms, partially orchestrated by IOs, that we call “Transnational New Governance” (TNG). With proper orchestration by IOs, TNG can ameliorate both “state failure”—the inadequacies of IOG—and “market failure”—the problems that result when the creation and evolution of norm-setting institutions is highly decentralized. Orchestration thus provides a significant way for IOs to improve their regulatory performance. Some IOs already engage actively with private actors and institutions—we provide a range of illustrations, highlighting the activities of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Yet there remains a significant “orchestration deficit” that provides real opportunities for IOs. We draw on the lessons of existing IO activities to suggest additional possibilities for improving IO performance.     

Youth participation in society

Due to economic and social changes in societies of Europe and Asia, youth is hard to capture as a group. While the previous generation had a rather linear life with the different stages following each other: school, university, work, family… it is becoming more confused nowadays for the new generation. Young people can be at the same time, student, parents, workers, unemployed… The transition leading to the stage of being settled in life is lasting longer. How successful this transition is, is matter of the various youth policies implemented in European and Asian countries. Young people relationship towards society is problematic. Both in Asia and Europe young people are trapped in the paradigm of being portrayed either as trouble-makers with an emphasis of youth problems such as drugs, violence… or as a new generation of leaders capable of major changes for the future which assumes that young people are not making any contribution to their community yet. This paper addresses the issue of youth participation and contribution to society in the two regions. It will discuss first the different concept of youth that influence the formulation of youth policies by European and Asian states. Secondly, economic and social changes that directly impact on young people’s life will compliment the discussion on youth policy to draw a comprehensive picture of the state of youth. Thirdly the paper will refer to an alternative approach—the ‘positive youth development’ approach—of viewing youth participation to society. To respond to the problematic relationship of youth towards society, this paper argues that there is a need for reconsidering youth contribution and for viewing it as an on-going process of self development rather than as an outcome. Such an approach implies to view young people experiences and initiatives with an holistic lens and to recognize it as a learning process, part of the broader individual development process of youth.

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Regional integration and (trans)cultural memory

This article asks how we can understand processes of regional integration through the lens of memory. Regional integration, despite its taking place in the here and now, rests on acts of cultural recall. Socially shared versions of history, concepts of identity, values and norms, stereotypes, and prejudices as well as certain modes of behavior are usually formed in long historical processes and become part of a “cultural memory.” Cultural memory is one of the “soft factors” which are inevitably at work in the negotiation of economical questions, energy and power politics—the “hard factors” of regional integration, as it were. It can affect the way in which processes of regional integration function, or fail to do so. And it often does so in ways that social groups are not even conscious of. The article will present theories of cultural memory put forward by Maurice Halbwachs, Pierre Nora, and Aleida and Jan Assmann as well as recent trends in research on “transcultural memory” and ask about their implications for the study of regional integration.     

Bureaucratic power at play? The performance of the EU in the International Atomic Energy Agency

This article examines the performance of the European Union (EU) in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Following Barnett and Finnemore, the article argues that the EU as an intergovernmental organization (IO) possesses bureaucratic power based on high technical knowledge and rational–legal authority that it can use to gain influence in the Agency. The EU uses its technical knowledge to be a first-mover in political and technical discussions, and uses its financial support to influence the Agency's technical standards and practices for nuclear safeguards, security, and safety. Nevertheless, the analysis shows that its rational–legal authority as an international organization is limited. Being a regional IO, it does not automatically possess the impartiality and hence legitimacy that ordinarily characterize an international organization. Thus, to further improve its performance in the IAEA, the EU must look beyond internal policy issues and focus on its external legitimacy and standing as well.     

Dislocated Masculinity: Adolescence and the Palestinian Nation-in-exile

Taking as its starting-point emerging discussion about genderand nationalism, this article considers the masculinities constructedby and for adolescent males born into a Palestinian refugeecamp in Jordan. I consider the relationship of these masculinitiesto the construction of the camp as a moral and socio-politicalspace. Through the employment of ethnographic material, thearticle demonstrates the ways in which young males—throughthe performance of a particular, dominant vision of masculinitytermed mukhayyamji—serve to reproduce the camp as authenticlocation of an exilic national community. The article also examinesthe implications for individual young men of this interplaybetween masculine performance and the reproduction of the campas a moral and socio-political space. It explores the consequencesboth for those who fail or choose not to uphold the idealized,mukhayyamji adolescent masculinity and for those who evincethe skills and qualities that this entails. It is argued that,while the former risk marginalization from the camp as a moraland socio-political community, the latter face marginalizationfrom the economic life of wider Jordanian society and, withthat, endanger the transition to social adulthood. Thus, a setof paradoxes emerges for young males that reflects the ambiguousposition of the Palestinian refugees in Jordan at a specificmoment in the history of Jordan and the Palestinian nationalstruggle.     

Domestic politics and the WHO’s International Health Regulations: Explaining the use of trade and travel barriers during disease outbreaks

During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO), acting under the authority of the International Health Regulations (IHR), recommended against the imposition of trade or travel restrictions because, according to WHO, these barriers would not prevent disease spread. Why did 47 states impose barriers anyway? This article argues that states use barriers as political cover to prevent a loss of domestic political support. This logic suggests that governments anticipating high domestic political benefits for imposing barriers during an outbreak will be likely to do so. Logistic regression and duration analysis of an original dataset coding state behavior during H1N1 provide support for this argument: democracies with weak health infrastructure—those that stand to gain the most from imposing barriers during an outbreak because they are particularly vulnerable to a negative public reaction—are more likely than others to impose barriers and to do so quickly.     

Small-scale social-environmental enterprises in the green economy: supporting grassroots innovation

To achieve a top-to-bottom growth of the “green economy”, incentives and enablers need to be identified for those micro enterprises working at the grassroots level. A three-year study of 1,300 social and environmental enterprises in developing countries reveals how they are developing new products and services for their communities, using new business models. But their scale-up is hampered by lack of access to research and technology support and gender barriers, as well as challenges with complex partnerships, progress monitoring, and financial viability. A large pool of innovative ideas remains untapped and an opportunity to build a sustainable economy is being missed.     

Clashes and dialogues of civilizations revisited— the case of contemporary East Asia and Europe

This article sets out to inquire whether or not—political desiderata apart—genuine intercultural dialogue is feasible between Europe and East Asia, and if so, in which subject areas this could be done productively. It therefore examines the underlying value patterns which are grounded in religious traditions on both sides. It retraces the consequences which Communist rule had (and continues to have) on religious practice and ethnic identities of affected societies, and reviews the salient inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts which surfaced during the past quarter century on both continents. This is done in order to be able to qualify empirically Huntington’s theory on predominantly cultural clashes between civilizations. In conclusion we find a large measure of congruence between normative values of Christianity and Buddhism and between the secularized work ethics of Confucianism and of (Calvinist) Protestantism, so as to permit a meeting of minds. Conflicts were caused by the religious and ethnic suppression by Communist regimes (Soviet Union, China, N. Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia), by other authoritarian regimes (post Communist Serbia and Russia, Myanmar), and by nationalist: chauvinism. Conflicts between cultures (Bosnia, Nagorno Karabach, Abkhazia, Chechnya, Eastern Indonesia, East Timor, Pattani, Mindanao, Tibet, Xinjiang) occured as well as within them (Transnistria, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Aceh). Huntington is thus frequently right, but not universally so. Moreover open conflicts on the two continents have rather been limited in extent and mostly took place in peripheral regions. Coexistence with Muslims is difficult both in Europe and in East Asia. But more often than not they appear as victims of aggression (Bosnia, Chechnya, Xinjiang, Pattani, the Cham) rather than as its perpetrators (Northern Cyprus, East Timor, Eastern Indonesia, and Al Quaida linked terrorism in the UK, Spain, Bali and Mindanao). In view of common values and similar problems, dialogue and cooperation should—and are—perfectly possible and potentially productive on a wide range of subjects, starting from conflict management and prevention, confidence building and reconciliation, to grand subjects of managing the consequences of globalization, of global security, of sharing experiences on regional integration, of lessons to be learned from development cooperation, on environmental protection and resource conservation, and on solving common demographic problems. Adapted lecture on “Dialogue of Cultures and Religions within and with East Asia” given at the Afro-Asian Institute, University of Graz (Austria) on 9.10.2007. Note that this article reflects only personal views.

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Punctuated equilibrium in the energy regime complex

The concept of a regime complex has proved fruitful to a burgeoning literature in international relations, but it has also opened up new questions about how and why they develop over time. This article describes the history of the energy regime complex as it has changed over the past 40 years, and interprets this history in light of an interpretive framework of the sources of institutional change. One of its principal contributions is to highlight what Stephen Krasner referred to as a pattern of “punctuated equilibrium” reflecting both periods of stasis and periods of innovation, as opposed to a gradual process of change. We show that the timing of innovation depends on dissatisfaction and shocks and that the nature of innovation—that is, whether it is path-dependent or de novo—depends on interest homogeneity among major actors. This paper is the first to demonstrate the empirical applicability of the punctuated equilibrium concept to international regime complexes, and contributes to the eventual development of a dynamic theory of change in regime complexes.     

Germany and Japan as Newly Declining Countries (NDCs)

This article reviews the structural problems of the political economies of Germany and Japan, their reduced competitiveness, industrial “hollowing-out” of corporate emigration, and their banking crises following past capital misallocations. To this, policy responses have been grossly inadequate as Japan resorted to massive public works programmes and Germany to an expanded welfare state—both entirely debt financed and unsustainable. These policy choices were the result of vested interests embedded in cartelized political structures and conformist public cultures, with growing tendencies towards collusion and corruption. Germany's and Japan's problems are compounded by societal value changes of an eroding work ethic and the rise of a hedonistic individualism, as evident, inter alia in catastrophic demographic data. As the political class and societies at large are still in a denial mode in both countries—after the September 2005 elections in Germany more so than in Japan—the much needed structural reforms are unlikely to be undertaken anytime soon.