Within International Relations scholarship, the nature of international organizations and their relationship with each other and nation-states has been widely contested. This edited volume brings together a team of experts to shed new light on inter-organizational relations in world politics. The book covers areas from the rule of law and international security to business and sport. Through its analysis, it demonstrates that, just as inter-organizations relations themselves are diverse and complex, research on this topic should also be pluralistic in order to draw new and valuable results and insights.

Comparing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the United Nations and the European Union across a range of different issue areas, this volume examines how the choice of venue and institution affects the strategies of NGOs. Despite significant differences with respect to their scope, membership as well as their institutional rules, the authors find that the UN and the EU have surprisingly similar effects on civil society organizations and regulate access in such a way that it significantly constrains the agency of NGOs. Highlights include: A comprehensive outline of the volume's main research questions, situated within the existing literature on the topic Eight case studies of NGO involvement in the UN and the EU across a range of different areas, including human rights, the environment, socio-economic and security issues A theoretically grounded summary of case study findings, challenging the findings of previous studies regarding the power of NGOs A discussion of the finding's implications for the broader literature, as well as for studies relating to the EU and the UN in particular Transnational Activism in the UN and the EU will be of interest to students and scholars of International Relations, European Studies, and Global Politics. Jutta Joachim is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Hannover, Germany. Birgit Locher is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Tubingen, Germany.

International organizations have once more become subjects of investigation for a whole range of scholars: political scientists, international relations specialists, organization theorists, and policy experts alike. The end of the Cold War, increased globalization, and the intensification of regional and functional cooperation all have produced a greater interest in the role of international organizations, and rightly so, since they increasingly take part in global governance as over-burdened governments become more and more willing to transfer responsibility to them or need to work through them. International Organizations and Policy Implementation determines the extent to which international intergovernmental organizations are involved in the national implementation of internationally formulated policies. In particular, it specifies the conditions under which they can be more or less successful in influencing the course and content of implementation or imprint their perspective on domestic policies. This edited volume helps to fill a gap in the existing literature in two respects: contrary to many implementation studies, the chapters are comparative in nature contrasting the role of international organizations across time, different levels, or different issue areas; and, second, they are theoretically grounded.

Over the past two decades, opportunities for NGOs to engage in collective action have increased tremendously. NGOs are no longer confined to the national level but also enjoy access to the regional and international level and are present at the United Nations, lobby policy-makers in the European Union and are making their way into economic institutions, such as the World Bank or the World Trade Organization. While the ever-growing number of governmental organizations presents non-state actors with unprecedented choices for engagement, it also poses new challenges. They need to adapt to the highly idiosyncratic structures of these organizations. Comparing non-governmental organizations in the United Nations and the European Union across a range of different issue areas, this book examines how the choice of venue and institution affects the actions and strategies of NGOs. In this volume two major international organizations are compared: the United Nations and the European Union. Both organizations are increasingly sought out by non-governmental organizations and exhibit interesting differences with respect to their institutional structure, scope, membership, culture and rules. To ascertain the effects of these institutional variations, the authors contrast NGO activities in both organizations across environment, human and women's rights - issue areas where NGOs have been argued to be more prominent - as well as socio-economics and security - issue areas where NGOs have been less visible.

International organizations have once more become subjects of investigation for a whole range of scholars: political scientists, international relations specialists, organization theorists, and policy experts alike. The end of the Cold War, increased globalization, and the intensification of regional and functional cooperation all have produced a greater interest in the role of international organizations, and rightly so, since they increasingly take part in global governance as over-burdened governments become more and more willing to transfer responsibility to them or need to work through them.

International Organizations and Policy Implementation determines the extent to which international intergovernmental organizations are involved in the national implementation of internationally formulated policies. In particular, it specifies the conditions under which they can be more or less successful in influencing the course and content of implementation or imprint their perspective on domestic policies.

This edited volume helps to fill a gap in the existing literature in two respects: contrary to many implementation studies, the chapters are comparative in nature contrasting the role of international organizations across time, different levels, or different issue areas; and, second, they are theoretically grounded.

This book examines the self-representation and identity politics of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs). PMSCs have become increasingly important over the past few decades. While their boom is frequently explained in functional terms, such as their cost-efficiency and effectiveness, this book offers an alternative explanation based on an analysis of the online self-presentations of forty-two US- and UK-based companies. PMSCs are shaping how they are perceived and establishing themselves as acceptable and legitimate security actors by eclectically appropriating identities more commonly associated with the military, businesses and humanitarian actors. Depending on their audience and clients' needs, they can be professional hero warriors, or promise turn-key security solutions based on their exceptional expertise, or, in a similar way to humanitarians, reassure those in need of relief and try to make the world a better place. Rather than being merely public relations, the self-referential assertions of PMSCs are political. Not only do they contribute to a normalization of private security and reinforce an already ongoing blurring of lines between the public and private sectors, they also change what we deem to be 'security' and a 'security actor'. This book will be of much interest to students of private military companies, critical security studies, military studies, security studies and IR.