Skip to main content

Roles, Types, and Definitions of International Organizations

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Performance Management in International Organizations
  • 826 Accesses

Abstract

The second chapter reviews the main theories and academic perspectives applied to the study of international organizations. We start by explaining the different meanings associated with the term international organization. Then we focus on how the role of the international organizations has been conceptualized across the different academic disciplines to highlight the current literature gaps and future research trajectories.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The Yearbook contains a directory of names and addresses, as well as profiles of organizations (historical and structural information, specifics on activities, events, and publications as well as biographies of important members), www.uia.org

  2. 2.

    Criteria include Type A, B, C.

  3. 3.

    For the full list, see Karns et al. (2010), page 18.

  4. 4.

    The study will focus on the characteristics and the dynamics of this type of international organizations although as suggested by Huntington (1993) comparing studies on public and private international organization could be as much revealing.

  5. 5.

    As of 21st of January 2019 http://www.worldometers.info/united-nations/

  6. 6.

    If we consider all types (A-U) of inter-governmental organizations listed in the Yearbook of International Associations (2018/2019 edition), the total number increases to 5.627. However, this number includes also dissolved or apparently inactive organizations (879), multilateral treaties, and intergovernmental agreements (2.454) and organizations emanating from places, persons, and bodies (930), which escape from the classical definition of international organizations used in this text. Nevertheless, different research works as Bauer and Knill (2007), and Trondal et al. (2013) consider all types of inter-governmental organizations listed in the YIA (types A-U) as “international public organizations.”

  7. 7.

    See Barnett and Finnmore (1999, 2004), Rochester (1989), Dijkzeul and Beigbeder (2003).

  8. 8.

    See Rochester (1986).

  9. 9.

    Some call the school of thought rational functionalism instead of liberal institutionalism. Liberal institutionalism is also very close to—but not synonymous with—regime theory and neoliberalism. To complicate matters even further, Robert Keohane, a political scientist largely responsible for the development of liberal institutionalism, considers his ideas part of institutionalism or rational institutionalism, even though those schools disagree with him on certain points.

  10. 10.

    See Wallace and Singer (1970).

References

  • Abbott, Kenneth W., and Duncan Snidal. “Why states act through formal international organizations.” Journal of conflict resolution 42, no. 1 (1998): 3–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agranoff, Robert, and Michael McGuire. “Multinetwork management: Collaboration and the hollow state in local economic policy.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 8.1 (1998): 67–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agranoff, Robert, and Michael McGuire. “Big questions in public network management research.” Journal of public administration research and theory 11, no. 3 (2001): 295–326.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agranoff, Robert, and Michael McGuire. “Inside the matrix: Integrating the paradigms of intergovernmental and network management.” International Journal of Public Administration 26.12 (2003): 1401–1422.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alesani, Daniele, Mariannunziata Liguori, and Ileana Steccolini. “Strengthening United Nations accountability: between managerial reform and search for legitimacy.” Management Reforms in International Organizations, Baden-Baden: Nomos (2007): 97–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allison, Graham T. “Essence of Decision Making: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis.” New York, Harper Collins Publishers (1971).

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Public and private managers: are they fundamentally alike in all unimportant respects.” Public Management. Public and Private Perspectives. Palo Alto, Cal.: Mayfield Publishing (1983).

    Google Scholar 

  • Arend, Anthony C., Anthony Clark, and Clark Anthony Arend. Legal rules and international society. Oxford University Press on Demand, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balint, Tim, and Christoph Knill. “The limits of legitimacy pressure as a source of organizational change: The reform of human resource management in the OECD.” University of Konstanz. Department of Politics and Management. Chair of Comparative Public Policy and Administration. Working Paper n. 1. (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, Michael, and Liv Coleman. “Designing police: Interpol and the study of change in international organizations.” International Studies Quarterly 49, no. 4 (2005): 593–619.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, Michael, and Martha Finnemore. “The politics, power, and pathologies of international organizations.” International organization 53, no. 4 (1999): 699–732.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Rules for the world: International organizations in global politics. Cornell University Press, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barzelay, Michael. The new public management: Improving research and policy dialogue. Vol. 3. University of California Press, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, Michael W, and Christoph Knill. “Management reforms in international organizations.”, Nomos, (2007).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, Steffen, et al. “Understanding international bureaucracies: taking stock.” Managers of Global Change: The Influence of International Environmental Bureaucracies (2009): 15–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauer, Michael W, Christoph Knill, and Steffen Eckhard. “International Public Administration: A New Type of Bureaucracy? Lessons and Challenges for Public Administration Research.” In International Bureaucracy, pp. 179–198. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berry, Frances Stokes, William D. Berry. State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis. American Political Science Review 84, No. 2 (1990):395–415.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biermann, Frank, Bernd Siebenhüner, and Anna Schreyögg, eds. International organizations in global environmental governance. Vol. 17. Routledge, 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blau, Peter M., and W. Scott. “Richard: Formal Organizations.” A Comparative Approach. San Francisco: Chandler (1962).

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyne, George A. “Public and private management: what’s the difference?.” Journal of Management Studies 39, no. 1 (2002): 97–122.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brechin, Steven R., and Gayl D. Ness. “Looking back at the gap: international organizations as organizations twenty-five years later.” Journal of International Organizations Studies 4, no. 1 (2013): 14–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Robert L. “Measuring delegation.” The Review of International Organizations 5, no. 2 (2010): 141–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caporaso, James. “Regional integration theory: understanding our past and anticipating our future.” Journal of European Public Policy 5, no. 1 (1998): 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carothers, Thomas, and William Barndt. “Civil society.” Foreign policy 117, no. 117 (1999): 18–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cassese, Sabino. Chi governa il mondo. Il Mulino, 2012.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooperrider, David L., and William A. Pasmore. “The organization dimension of global change.” Human Relations 44, no. 8 (1991): 763–787.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cortell, Andrew, and Susan Peterson. “Historical Institutionalism and IO Design: A Synthetic Approach to IO Independence.” In Conference on Theoretical Synthesis and the Study of International Organization, February, Washington, DC. 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, Robert W., ed. International Organization: World Politics. Springer, 1969

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, Robert W., Jacobson H. J., The Anatomy of Influence: Decision Making in International Organization, New Heaven, Yale University Press, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cupitt, Richard T., Rodney L. Whitlock, and Lynn Williams Whitlock. “The (IM) Morality of international governmental organizations.” International Interactions 21, no. 4 (1996): 389–404.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert A. The Behavioral Approach in Political Science: Epitaph for a Monument to a Successful Protest. American Political Science Review 55, no. 4 (1961): 763–772.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahrendorf, Ralf. Class and class conflict in industrial society. Vol. 15. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1959

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, Thomas. “The Administration of International Organizations: Top Down and Bottom up.” Ashgate, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, Thomas, and Richard Woodward. International organizations: A companion. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dijkzeul, Dennis. “United Nations development co-operation as a form of international public service management.” International journal of public sector management 10, no. 3 (1997): 165–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dijkzeul, Dennis, and Yves Beigbeder, eds. Rethinking international organizations: pathology and promise. Berghahn Books, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eckhard, Steffen, and Jörn Ege. “International bureaucracies and their influence on policy-making: A review of empirical evidence.” Journal of European Public Policy 23, no. 7 (2016): 960–978.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ege, Jörn, and Michael W. Bauer. “International bureaucracies from a public administration and international relations perspective.” Routledge handbook of international organization (2013): 135–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elliott, Odus V., and Lester M. Salamon. The tools of government: A guide to the new governance. Oxford University Press, 2002.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elsig, Manfred. “The World Trade Organization at Work: Performance in a Member Driven-Milieu.” The Review of International Organizations, 5 no. 3 (2010): 345–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferlie, Ewan, Louise Fitzgerald, and Andrew Pettigrew. The new public management in action. OUP Oxford, 1996

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferlie, Ewan, et al. “Public policy networks and ‘wicked problems’: a nascent solution?.” Public Administration 89.2 (2011): 307–324.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finnemore, Martha, and Kathryn Sikkink. “International norm dynamics and political change.” International organization 52, no. 4 (1998): 887–917.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gage, Robert W., Myrna Mandell, and Dale Krane. Strategies for managing intergovernmental policies and networks. Praeger, 1990

    Google Scholar 

  • Geri, Laurance R. “New public management and the reform of international organizations.” International Review of Administrative Sciences 67, no. 3 (2001): 445–460.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glöckler, Gabriel. “From Take-off to Cruising Altitude: Management Reform and Organizational Change of the European Central Bank.” In Management Reforms in International Organizations, pp. 85–96. Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordenker, Leon, and Sanders Paul. “Organization Theory and International Organization.” In International Organization: A Conceptual Approach, Paul Taylor and A.J.R. Groom, eds., New York, Nichols Publishing Co., (1978): 84–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Granovetter, Mark S. The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology 78 no. 6 (1973): 1360–1380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grieco, Joseph M. “Realist international theory and the study of world politics.” New thinking in international relations theory 167 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  • Grigorescu, Alexandru. “The spread of bureaucratic oversight mechanisms across intergovernmental organizations.” International Studies Quarterly 54, no. 3 (2010): 871–886.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gstöhl, Sieglinde. “Governance through government networks: The G8 and international organizations.” The Review of International Organizations 2, no. 1 (2007): 1–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haas, Ernst B. The Uniting of Europe, Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press., 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haftel, Yoram Z., and Alexander Thompson. “The independence of international organizations: Concept and applications.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 50, no. 2 (2006): 253–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hanf, Kenneth, and Fritz W. Scharpf. Interorganizational policy making: Limits to coordination and central control. Sage Publications, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

  • He, Kai. “Institutional balancing and international relations theory: Economic interdependence and balance of power strategies in Southeast Asia.” European Journal of International Relations 14, no. 3 (2008): 489–518.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heilbron-Price, David. “Schuman and the dynamics of the new Europe.” (1995): 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hultman, Lisa, Jacob D. Kathman, and Megan Shannon. “United Nations peacekeeping dynamics and the duration of post-civil conflict peace.” Conflict Management and Peace Science 33, no. 3 (2016): 231–249.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huntington, Samuel P. The third wave: Democratization in the late twentieth century. Vol. 4. University of Oklahoma press, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins-Smith, Hank C., and Paul A. Sabatier. “The advocacy coalition framework: An assessment.” Theories of the policy process 118 (1999): 117–166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jervis, Robert. “Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Princeton, NJ.” Press: Princeton (1976).

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnstone, Ian. “The role of the UN secretary-general: The power of persuasion based on law.” Global Governance 9, no. 4 (2003): 441–458.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jönsson, Christer. “Interorganization theory and international organization.” International Studies Quarterly 30, no. 1 (1986): 39–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ———. “International Organisation and Co-operation: An Interorganizational Perspective.” International Social Science Journal 138, no. 4 (1993): 463–477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaja, Ashwin, and Eric Werker. “Corporate governance at the World Bank and the dilemma of global governance.” The World Bank Economic Review 24, no. 2 (2010): 171–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karns, Margaret P., Karen A. Mingst, and K. W. Stiles. “Chapter 1: The Challenges of Global Governance.” Karns, Margaret P./Mingst, Karen A.: International Organizations. The Politics and Processes of Global Governance, Boulder (2010): 3–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keohane, Robert Owen, and Joseph S. Nye. Transnational relations and world politics . Harvard University Press, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. After hegemony. Vol. 54. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keohane, Robert Owen, and Lisa L. Martin. “The promise of institutionalist theory.” International security 20, no. 1 (1995): 39–51.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kingdon, John W., and Eric Stano. Agendas, alternatives, and public policies. Vol. 45. Boston: Little, Brown, 1984.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klijn, Erik-Hans, and Geert R. Teisman. “Strategies and games in networks.” Managing complex networks: Strategies for the public sector 98 (1997): 118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koch, Martin. “Processes of Autonomization in/of International Organizations–the case of the World Trade Organization (WTO).” (2006).

    Google Scholar 

  • Koppenjan, Johannes Franciscus Maria, Joop Koppenjan, and Erik-Hans Klijn. Managing uncertainties in networks: a network approach to problem solving and decision making. Psychology Press, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krasner, Stephen D., ed. International regimes. Cornell University Press, 1983.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Approaches to the State.” Comparative politics 16, no. 2 (1984): 223–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuziemko, Ilyana, and Eric Werker. “How much is a seat on the Security Council worth? Foreign aid and bribery at the United Nations.” Journal of political economy 114, no. 5 (2006): 905–930.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levy, Roger. “Confused expectations: Decentralizing the management of EU programmes.” Public Money & Management 23, no. 2 (2003): 83–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindberg, Leon N. “The political dynamics of European economic integration.” The political dynamics of European economic integration. (1963).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandell, Myrna P. “Intergovernmental management in interorganizational networks: A revised perspective.” International Journal of Public Administration 11.4 (1988): 393–416.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Getting results through collaboration: Networks and network structures for public policy and management. ABC-CLIO, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, Lisa, and Beth Simmons. “International Organizations and Institutions.” In Handbook of International Relations, (eds.) Carlsnaes W., Risse T., Simmons B.A. Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications, 2012: 192–211.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick, John. “Environmental policy.” In Developments in the European Union, pp. 193–210. Palgrave, London, 1999.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGuire, Michael, and Robert Agranoff. “The limitations of public management networks.” Public Administration 89.2 (2011): 265–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mearsheimer, John J. “A realist reply.” International Security 20, no. 1 (1995): 82–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, John W., and Brian Rowan. “Institutionalized organizations.” and Robert Wuthnow, Meaning and Moral Order (1991).

    Google Scholar 

  • Milward, H. Brinton, and Keith G. Provan. “Managing networks effectively.” In National Public Management Research Conference, Georgetown University, Washington, DC October. 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mintrom, Michael. Policy entrepreneurs and school choice. Georgetown University Press, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitrany, David. The progress of international government. Yale University Press, 1933.

    Google Scholar 

  • ——. “The functional approach to world organization.” International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944) 24.3 (1948): 350–363.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moravcsik, Andrew. “Preferences and power in the European Community: a liberal intergovernmentalist approach.” JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies 31, no. 4 (1993): 473–524.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moreno, Jacob Levy. “Who shall survive?: A new approach to the problem of human interrelations.” (1934).

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadel, Siegfried F. 1957. The Theory of Social Structure. London: Cohen and West.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ness, Gayl D., and Steven R. Brechin. “Bridging the Gap: International Organizations as Organizations.” International Organization 42.2 (1988): 245–273.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nielsen Daniel L., and Michael J. Tierney. “Delegation to Internal Organization: Agency theory and World Bank Environmental Reform.” International Organization, 57, no. 2 (2003).

    Google Scholar 

  • North, Douglass C. “A transaction cost theory of politics.” Journal of theoretical politics 2.4 (1990): 355–367.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Leary, Rosemary, and Lisa B. Bingham. A manager’s guide to resolving conflicts in collaborative networks. Washington, DC: Center for the Business of Government, 2007.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Toole Jr, Laurence J. “Treating networks seriously: Practical and research-based agendas in public administration.” Public administration review (1997): 45–52.

    Google Scholar 

  • Osborne, D., and T. Gaebler. “Reinventing Government: How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector. Addison-Wesley Publ.” Reading, MA (1992).

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrow, Charles. “Economic theories of organization.” Theory and society 15, no. 1 (1986): 11–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peters, B. Guy. The future of governing. Univ Press of Kansas, 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollack, Mark A. “Delegation, agency, and agenda setting in the European Community.” International organization 51, no. 1 (1997): 99–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollitt, Christopher, and Geert Bouckaert. Public management reform: A comparative analysis. Oxford University Press, USA, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Provan, Keith G., and H. Brinton Milward. “A preliminary theory of interorganizational network effectiveness: A comparative study of four community mental healt systems.” Administrative science quarterly (1995): 1–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Do networks really work? A framework for evaluating public‐sector organizational networks.” Public administration review 61, no. 4 (2001): 414–423.

    Google Scholar 

  • Provan, Keith G., and Juliann G. Sebastian. “Networks within networks: Service link overlap, organizational cliques, and network effectiveness.” Academy of Management journal 41.4 (1998): 453–463.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainey, Hal G., and Barry Bozeman. “Comparing public and private organizations: Empirical research and the power of the a priori.” Journal of public administration research and theory 10, no. 2 (2000): 447–470.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reinalda, Bob, and Bertjan Verbeek, eds. Decision making within international organisations. Vol. 31. Routledge, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reynaud, Julien, and Julien Vauday. “Geopolitics and international organizations: An empirical study on IMF facilities.” Journal of Development Economics 89, no. 1 (2009): 139–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rochester, J. Martin. “The rise and fall of international organization as a field of study.” International Organization 40, no. 4 (1986): 777–813.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rochester, J. Martin. The United Nations and World Order: Reviving the Theory and Practice of International Organization. University of Missouri–St. Louis, Center for International Studies, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosamond, Ben. Theories of European Integration. Macmillan-St Martin’s Press, Basingstoke and New York, 2000.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbloom, Paul Simon. “The chunking of goal hierarchies: A model of practice and stimulus-response compatibility.” (1983).

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruggie, John Gerard. “Multilateralism: the anatomy of an institution.” International organization 46, no. 3 (1992): 561–598.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, Mark, et al. “Building consensual institutions: networks and the National Estuary Program.” American journal of political science 47.1 (2003): 143–158.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, Randall W. Controlling institutions: International organizations and the global economy. Cambridge University Press, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stutzer, Alois, and Bruno S. Frey. “Making international organizations more democratic.” Review of law & economics 1, no. 3 (2005): 305–330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trondal, Jarle, Martin Marcussen, Torbjörn Larsson, and Frode Veggeland. “Unpacking international organisations: The dynamics of compound bureaucracies.” (2013).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Walker, Jack L. “The Diffusion of Innovations Among the American States.” American Political Science Review 63, no. 3 (1969): 880–899.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, Michael, and J. David Singer. “Intergovernmental organization in the global system, 1815–1964: a quantitative description.” International Organization 24.2 (1970): 239–287.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward, Michael D., Katherine Stovel, and Audrey Sacks. “Network analysis and political science.” Annual Review of Political Science 14 (2011): 245–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williamson, Oliver E. “Markets and hierarchies.” New York 2630 (1975).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright Bradley E. Public Administration and Management Research: Evidence of Isolation and Unrealized Opportunity 267, In O’Leary, Rosemary, David M. Van Slyke, and Soonhee Kim, eds. The future of public administration around the world: The Minnowbrook perspective. Georgetown University Press, 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yearbook of International Organizations, (2015), Union of International Associations (UIA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Yi‐Chong, Xu, and Patrick Weller. “‘To Be, But not to Be Seen’: Exploring the Impact of International Civil Servants.” Public Administration 86, no. 1 (2008): 35–51.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marco Amici .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Amici, M., Cepiku, D. (2020). Roles, Types, and Definitions of International Organizations. In: Performance Management in International Organizations. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39472-1_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics