Dennis Dijkzeul

Yves Beigbeder

The management of international organisations is attracting growing attention. This text provides a fundamental rethinking of current approaches, criticism and cures for these organisations.

Pathology and Promise

Rethinking International Organizations

Dirk Salomons

Despite the sustained scholarly attention that the United Nations and international NGOs have received in the twenty-first century, they still remain under-researched from a management studies perspective. This volume brings together rich analyses of these organizations’ functioning, arguing that they are best understood as intermediaries between international decision-making and funding bodies in the developed world and initiatives that take place on the ground, primarily in the Global South. Based on current management research, this follow-up to Rethinking International Organizations (Berghahn, 2002) provides a wealth of both empirical and theoretical insights, along with practical recommendations how these organizations can function more effectively.

Agency and Pathology in a Multipolar World

International Organizations Revisited

William E. DeMars

It has become commonplace to observe the growing pervasiveness and impact of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). And yet the three central approaches in International Relations (IR) theory, Liberalism, Realism and Constructivism, overlook or ignore the importance of NGOs, both theoretically and politically. Offering a timely reappraisal of NGOs, and a parallel reappraisal of theory in IR—the academic discipline entrusted with revealing and explaining world politics, this book uses practice theory, global governance, and new institutionalism to theorize NGO accountability and analyze the history of NGOs. This study uses evidence from empirical data from Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia and from studies that range across the issue-areas of peacebuilding, ethnic reconciliation, and labor rights to show IR theory has often prejudged and misread the agency of NGOs. Drawing together a group of leading international relations theorists, this book explores the frontiers of new research on the role of such forces in world politics and is required reading for students, NGO activists, and policy-makers.

The NGO Challenge for International Relations Theory

Jürgen Lieser

Menschen, die infolge von Gewaltkonflikten oder Naturkatastrophen in eine humanitäre Notlage geraten sind, benötigen Hilfe. Diese ethische Selbstverständlichkeit hat mit der Gründung des Roten Kreuzes vor mehr als 150 Jahren einen institutionellen Rahmen bekommen. Seitdem ist die humanitäre Hilfe, also das organisierte und professionelle Helfen in humanitären Krisen und Katastrophen, stark gewachsen. Humanitäre Organisationen sind fast weltweit aktiv. In der Praxis erweist sich die humanitäre Hilfe als eine große Herausforderung. Hilfsorganisationen stehen unter einem hohen Erwartungs- und Zeitdruck: Sie sollen schnell, effektiv und reibungslos Hilfe zum Überleben leisten. Die Hilfe soll unparteiisch, neutral und nachhaltig sein und sich allein an den Bedürfnissen der betroffenen Menschen orientieren. Staatliche Geber, private Spender und auch die Hilfeempfänger verlangen Rechenschaft über den sinnvollen Einsatz der Hilfsgelder. Seit Jahren nehmen Naturkatastrophen in Zahl und Umfang zu. Gewaltkonflikte entwickeln sich zu chronischen Krisen mit einer Kriegswirtschaft, die es schwieriger macht, die Betroffenen zu unterstützen. Die Helferinnen und Helfer sehen sich konfrontiert mit zunehmend komplexeren Notlagen, divergierenden Geberinteressen, politischer Einflussnahme und konkurrierenden Hilfsangeboten. Sie geraten zwischen die Fronten und werden Opfer von gewaltsamen Übergriffen. Auch Missbrauch und politische Instrumentalisierung kommen vor. Dieses Buch trägt zu einem besseren Verständnis von humanitären Krisen und ihren Folgen bei. Es zeigt, wie sich die humanitäre Hilfe in einem internationalen System entwickelt hat und wie die verschiedenen Akteure ihre Rolle definieren und ausfüllen. Es zeigt auch, wie schwierig es ist, dem hohen ethischen Anspruch an unparteiische und von politischen Interessen unabhängige Hilfe gerecht zu werden. Die Autorinnen und Autoren – Vertreter von Hilfsorganisationen und Wissenschaft – zeigen aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven auf, wie humanitäre Hilfe zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit versucht, dem weltweit wachsenden Hilfebedarf gerecht zu werden.

Handbuch Humanitäre Hilfe

Zeynep Sezgin

As humanitarian needs continue to grow rapidly, humanitarian action has become more contested, with new actors entering the field to address unmet needs, but also challenging long-held principles and precepts. This volume provides detailed empirical comparisons between emerging and traditional humanitarian actors. It sheds light on why and how the emerging actors engage in humanitarian crises and how their activities are carried out and perceived in their transnational organizational environment. It develops and applies a conceptual framework that fosters research on humanitarian actors and the humanitarian principles. In particular, it simultaneously refers to theories of organizational sociology and international relations to identify both the structural and the situational factors that influence the motivations, aims and activities of these actors, and their different levels of commitment to the traditional humanitarian principles. It thus elucidates the role of the humanitarian principles in promoting coherence and coordination in the crowded and diverse world of humanitarian action, and discusses whether alternative principles and parallel humanitarian systems are in the making. This volume will be of great interest to postgraduate students and scholars in humanitarian studies, globalization and transnationalism research, organizational sociology, international relations, development studies, and migration and diaspora studies, as well as policy makers and practitioners engaged in humanitarian action, development cooperation and migration issues.

Emerging actors and contested principles

The New Humanitarians in International Practice

Margit Fauser

Analyzing the role and impact of Diaspora Organizations (DOs) in International Relations (IR), this interdisciplinary volume provides empirical accounts of their work across Europe, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East. Over the last three decades, DOs have increased in number, spread to new regions, and addressed an ever-widening array of global problems, yet they have not received sufficient attention in IR in spite of the inter- and transnational nature of their involvements. Contributions explore important topics such as: The role of DOs in cooperation and conflict and in change and stability; DOs as transnational organizations and their degree of autonomy and power within the networks in which they operate; and The changing roles of DOs vis-à-vis states, regimes, and international organizations, when dealing with issues as diverse as peace, conflict, migration, integration, development, humanitarian action, human rights, religion, and economic growth. Demonstrating how IR can benefit from a stronger focus on DOs, this book will also help other disciplines gain insights into DOs and will prove useful to those in the fields of international relations, sociology, geography and anthropology.

Dennis Dijkzeul

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