Official Course Description
Inside International Organizations
In International Relations (IR), it has become commonplace to approach international organizations (IOs) as bureaucracies. To some degree, this constructivist move has helped in opening up IOs. Instead of viewing IOs are mere reflections of state interests, as realists do, constructivists started studying the rules and routines that stand behind IOs own effort to create bureaucratic rules and benchmarks, whether for the promotion of democracy, the furtherance and regulation of free trade, or the governance of migration.
However, in recent years, the dominant constructivist perspective has been challenged. Practice theorists now invite us to acknowledge diversity among IOs and to specify what the term bureaucratic culture implies for each IO. They often possess distinctive knowledge about this culture because they did not study IOs as outsiders, but used to work for them. That is, they know how the facilities look, how one has to dress and speak there, and how communication between the headquarters and field offices takes place. By implication, practice theorists and scholar-practitioners possess intimidate knowledge about IOs and the normative problems and problems of efficiency that might arise from the application of bureaucratic rule in distinct policy fields and parts of the world.
In this course, we will first familiarize ourselves with the theoretical, methodological, and conceptual tools available for the study of IOs. We then study a variety of international non-governmental organizations (INGOS) and IOs that are engaged in different policy fields. We finish with reflections about the added value of knowledge about the inside of IOs. While we will learn mostly from the English-language academic literature, we will also talk to practitioners who face the inside of IOs on a daily basis.
Inside International Organizations
In International Relations (IR), it has become commonplace to approach international organizations (IOs) as bureaucracies. To some degree, this constructivist move has helped in opening up IOs. Instead of viewing IOs are mere reflections of state interests, as realists do, constructivists started studying the rules and routines that stand behind IOs own effort to create bureaucratic rules and benchmarks, whether for the promotion of democracy, the furtherance and regulation of free trade, or the governance of migration.
However, in recent years, the dominant constructivist perspective has been challenged. Practice theorists now invite us to acknowledge diversity among IOs and to specify what the term bureaucratic culture implies for each IO. They often possess distinctive knowledge about this culture because they did not study IOs as outsiders, but used to work for them. That is, they know how the facilities look, how one has to dress and speak there, and how communication between the headquarters and field offices takes place. By implication, practice theorists and scholar-practitioners possess intimidate knowledge about IOs and the normative problems and problems of efficiency that might arise from the application of bureaucratic rule in distinct policy fields and parts of the world.
In this course, we will first familiarize ourselves with the theoretical, methodological, and conceptual tools available for the study of IOs. We then study a variety of international non-governmental organizations (INGOS) and IOs that are engaged in different policy fields. We finish with reflections about the added value of knowledge about the inside of IOs. While we will learn mostly from the English-language academic literature, we will also talk to practitioners who face the inside of IOs on a daily basis.
- Lehrende: Nadine Benedix
- Lehrende: Leonie Holthaus
Semester: ST 2020