Workshop Chair: Tamar Gutner, American University
Location: San Francisco Hilton, Continental 7
Time: Tuesday, March 25, 2008; 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
International organizations (IOs) are essential but controversial actors in world politics today. They are increasingly relied upon to manage what former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan famously called “problems without passports,” which states cannot easily address on their own. But instead of being praised for their contributions, IOs face relentless attacks from critics who believe they are ineffective - or worse, that they exacerbate the very problems they are supposed to ameliorate.
While it is widely recognized that IOs often produce ineffective results or unintended consequences, the IO literature is underdeveloped in its ability to explain why this occurs. Current scholarship, which focuses on distinct questions of why states create institutions, and how states pursue their interests through institutions, is largely removed from the lively debates in the policy world on the performance of individual IOs. At a time when many argue that major IOs are collapsing under the weight of globalization and new security threats, and therefore require reform, it is critical that scholar are not sitting on the sidelines of these debates.
Final Workshop Report
- DOC File (download)
Workshop Participants:
- Alexander Thompson, Ohio State University
- Tamar Gutner, American University
- Manfred Elsig, Graduate Institute International Studies, Geneva
- Susan Hyde, Yale University
- Michael Lipson, Concordia University, Canada
- Mark Pollack, Temple University
- Duncan Snidal, University of Chicago
- Katherine Weaver, University of Kansas
- Rorden Wilkinson, University of Manchester, Great Britain
- Emilie Hafner-Burton, Princeton University
This workshop is sold out. Thank you for your interest.
