The Working World of International Organizations
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.