Western liberal order is in a protracted process of transition. There is no new hegemon willing or able to replace the United States and to push for a redesign of the global governance architecture from scratch. Emerging powers engage in global cooperation in their own way and on their own terms. While there seems to be a growing demand for effective global cooperation, there are no longer universally applicable concepts to analyze it nor a common language with which to describe it. Effective Multilateralism makes the case for a new approach in order to understand and explain global cooperation and collective action juxtaposing the European concept of effective multilateralism with the empirical reality of regional cooperation in East Asia. The careful examination of East Asian cases leads to a better understanding of the scope conditions of analytical frameworks of multilateralism.

This book provides the first comparative treatment of the roles of informal ad hoc groupings of states within selected conflict settings and their effects on governance in and out of the UN Security Council. Since the 1990s, informal institutions such as groups of friends, and contact or core groups have proliferated as instruments for the management of risk and conflict due to the increasing demands on the UN Security Council to adapt to the new post-cold war security environment. The perception of both the capacity and limits of the Security Council has had a catalytic effect on the creation of these ad hoc mechanisms. The substance of conflict resolution and the process of its legitimation tend to become increasingly detached, with the former being delegated to informal groups or coalition of states, while the Security Council provides the latter. The successful merger of right process and substantive outcome may strengthen the legitimacy of the Council and make actions taken by informal institutions more acceptable. This book seeks to establish the importance of informal ad hoc groupings of states in the making of peace. The dynamics between informal institutions and the Security Council are closely examined in the context of conflict resolution in Namibia, El Salvador, and Kosovo. The study illustrates the changing role of the Council in the maintenance of international peace and security. The decentralization of tasks to informal groups allows the achievement of policy goals that would be unattainable in the centralized setting of formal international organizations. In effect, informal institutions are agents of incremental change.

Existing theories of cooperation assume a stable geo-political order, led by countries with a shared conception of the modalities of cooperation. These assumptions are no longer justified. Effective Multilateralism makes the case for a new approach to explaining international cooperation through the lens of East Asian.