Inter-Organisational Relations in International Security: Competition and Cooperation

Stephen Aris, Aglaya Snetkov, Andreas Wenger

Concluded

This project grew out of the increasingly trend for multilateral institutions to emphasise their ties to other such institutions, often using such links as evidence of their legitimacy, relevance and influence. While, conversely, other multilateral institutions have entered into disputes with one another over their policies, agendas, authority and control over resources. The scope of such inter-organizational relations range from the ongoing debate over the nature of the UN’s relationship to regional organizations to the long-term dynamics within regional contexts between so called pan- and sub-regional institutional arrangements, as well as the recent emphasis on and promotion of “inter-regionalism”.

Against this background, the project starts from the assumption that such inter-organizational relationships are politically both significant and contested (either more cooperatively or more antagonistically). By critically investigating bilateral, trilateral and wider networks of inter-organizational relations, we seek to develop a better understanding of the dynamics underlying the contemporary governance of international security. The edited book will come out of the project, therefore, considers the inherent “cooperation-competition” dynamic within, across and between a wide-range of relationships between multilateral institutions, all of which are of relevance to contemporary international security governance.