The Working World of International Organizations

Author(s):  
Xu Yi-chong ◽  
Patrick Weller

International organizations (IOs) matter. Based on extensive interviews and exchanges with key players in IOs in the past decade, this book uncovers the regular working world of IOs, to challenge the orthodox view that member states alone decide what IOs do and how they operate. This book provides a realistic and provocative account of the way IOs really work, a picture that would be recognized by those who work there. The Working World of International Organizations specifically examines three groups of players in IOs—state representatives, as proxy for states and often with schizophrenic demands, the head of IOs as diplomat, manager, and politician, and the staff of the permanent secretariat with their competing solutions. It explores their actions and interactions by asking who or what shapes their decisions; how and when decisions are made; how players interact within an IO; and how the interactions vary across six IOs. It argues that each and all of them must contribute if any progress is to be achieved in managing global problems. It shows why this is the case by examining how decisions are made in three key areas: agenda-setting, financing, and decentralization.

1995 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 908
Author(s):  
Diana Ginn

The author reviews the response of the criminal justice system to the problem of wife assault by focusing on the key players within the system. The way the criminal law applies to wife assault affects battered women's access to that area of law known as family law, with negative repercussions for them and their children. Several myths about the nature of wife assault help ensure an inappropriate response. These include the myths that the woman is to blame, that by just leaving the abusive situation she can resolve it, and that if she does not leave it is because she enjoys the abuse. The author reviews current methods used by police, prosecutors and judges for dealing with wife assault and discusses the inadequacies of those methods. She concludes that despite many recommendations for change, there have been no significant improvements in the way the criminal justice system deals with wife assault. It is incumbent upon the legal profession to demonstrate professional responsibility by ensuring that wife assault is taken more seriously than it is now and than it has been in the past. This is a necessary reform before battered women can rely on the criminal justice system.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 125-135
Author(s):  
David Evans Bailey

Whilst online dating has been around for several years; immersive technologies are relatively new to this type of interaction. The first forays into immersive VR online dating have only just being made in the past year. To what degree this type of technology will change the way that we date is potentially quite different from the current way that online dates are conducted. The way the technology works could make virtual dates seem as real as a physical date. Understanding how immersive technology functions gives some insights into the future of online dating and also the impact on the digital economy.


2014 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 207-222
Author(s):  
Danusa Santana Andrade

This study presents a content analysis of communication strategies of government of the Presidency of the Republic, a profile outlining the administration of Dilma Rousseff. The research is supported by the concepts of government communication, public opinion, hegemony and agenda-setting. The corpus of this study consists of tools and government communication chan- nels focusing on the presidency website. The study noted that while there is a predominance of political marketing in the past administrations, the administration of President Dilma through the portal, gave greater emphasis to government communication. The research is concluded by briefly discussing the way the presidency to communicate with society, with a different twist on the theme set.


Author(s):  
Diana Panke ◽  
Franziska Hohlstein ◽  
Gurur Polat

AbstractInternational organizations (IOs) constitute key arenas in which states discuss common issues. Such debates are central prerequisites for taking qualitatively good decisions. Yet researchers have not examined how IOs foster discussion through their institutional provisions. We conduct a factor analysis of institutional rules of 114 IOs which reveals that two ideal types how IOs seek to induce discussion exist: The first type creates room for debate in the negotiation stage of the policy cycle. In contrast, the second type gives member states a strong say in the agenda-setting, thereby facilitating debate. Why do IOs opt for either strategy? A limited policy scope, heterogeneity among actors, and diplomatic socialization increase the probability that IOs place emphasis on debate during negotiations, while a high number of members is the main reason for IOs to promote debate during agenda-setting. These choices reflect the strive of IOs to balance extensive debate with speedy decision-making.


Author(s):  
John Tulloch ◽  
Belinda Middleweek

Chapter 10 explores the ways in which intertexuality within and between the stages of writing, directing, and performing the film The Piano Teacher create a multi-authored text. In the absence of an ethnography of production impossible for films made in the past, the authors devised a “soft ethnography” approach focused on some key players in this “multiply authored” semiotic model (namely, the prize-winning author, director, and lead actor) to suggest the flow and feedback between these different “signatures” in the text. This soft ethnography is grounded in knowledge of the writer’s discursive history and politics, the director’s television/film sense of liberation via “obscene” cinema, and the actor’s “directing” (via her construction of character) through her performance as a developing part of her star persona. These personal/public negotiations are symptomatic of the reflexive “synthesize and extend” interdisciplinary approach of Real Sex Cinema.


Author(s):  
Xu Yi-chong ◽  
Patrick Weller

This chapter surveys the existing approaches to studying IOs, and discusses our public policy approach. It describes IOs as institutions that are defined by formal and informal rules, by practices and sets of expectations that shape the way those involved in IOs’ activities work. Rather than accepting the traditional proposition that member states decide, the chapter argues that we need to go inside the organization to examine how all the actors perceive their roles, interpret their responsibilities, and interact with each other. It identifies three groups of actors—state representatives, heads of IOs, and secretariats—and discusses their strength, advantages, and levers in IO operations. It particularly highlights the impact of organizational structure, history, and culture on actors’ behaviour and examines their powers of persuasion in a comparative study across six IOs.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-651
Author(s):  
Diana Panke

States address many of today’s global problems in international organizations (IOs). At the same time, regional international organizations (RIOs) play important roles in IOs, as a series of case studies suggests. RIO member states can speak on behalf of an RIO in IO negotiations. This paper explores under what conditions states voice RIO positions instead of national ones in IOs and thereby turn into agents of regionalization. Based on a novel dataset of more than 500 international negotiations and a quantitative analysis of theory-guided International Relations hypotheses, this paper shows that states are increasingly likely to negotiate on behalf of an RIO, when they regard grouping positions into regional blocs in IO negotiations as more effective, when they have a formal role as RIO chair, and when they possess financial and staff capacities needed in order to voice a regional position in international negotiations.


Author(s):  
Leonid Evegen'evich Popov

In the author's opinion, many global problems that face humanity - in the fields of education, medicine, management etc can be tackled more effectively if the cyclic nature of self-reproducing systems – including living beings – is taken into account. Summarizing the main physiological findings of the last decades on "adaptation reactions", one can very roughly say that the way of action which is effective in the sense of productive activity of people happens at the same time to be healthy, and it gives the participants of the process the feeling of happiness. The present paper represents a very short overview of the contemporary concepts of the adaptation reactions based on the fundamental understanding of their cyclic nature due to general properties of self-reproducing systems. One interesting feature of self-reproduction cycles is its first "phase of orientation" which was not discussed in detail in the past but plays a key role in the whole cycle.


Author(s):  
Leonid E. Popov

AbstractInthe author’s opinion, many global problems that face humanity—in the fields of education, medicine, management etc. can be tackled more effectively if the cyclic nature of self-reproducing systems—including living beings—is taken into account. Summarizing the main physiological findings of the last decades on “adaptation reactions”, one can very roughly say that the way of action which is effective in the sense of productive activity of people happens at the same time to be healthy, and it gives the participants of the process the feeling of happiness. The present paper represents a very short overview of the contemporary concepts of the adaptation reactions based on the fundamental understanding of their cyclic nature due to general properties of self-reproducing systems. One interesting feature of self-reproduction cycles is its first “phase of orientation” which was not discussed in detail in the past but plays a key role in the whole cycle.


Author(s):  
J.D. Currie

THE Northland flock is increasing rapidly. The sheep population reflects the progress made in pasture development over the past fourteen years, the two million sheep wintered this year representing a remarkable 200% increase in numbers since 1953. It is the initiative of progressive farmers in pioneering improved management techniques, and the courage of the Lands and Survey Department in implementing these methods on a large scale, and with such convincing success, that have shown the way. But it is only during the last three favourable growth years that the extension message of more fertilizer and lime, and, above all, more stock, has been widely accepted. Fertilizer sales have doubled over this three-year period, and sheep owners (of which there are 1,000 with 500 or more sheep), reached a climax this year when they increased their flocks by three times the national average.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document