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Scholars in the field of International Relations increasingly pay attention to interorganizational cooperation. While relevant studies have analyzed why international organizations (IOs) – governmental and non-governmental ones – cooperate with one another and which purpose the cooperation has, we currently have only a rudimentary understanding of how this cooperation is established and who is responsible for progressing IOs from non-cooperation to informal or formal cooperation.
To shed light on this ‘blind spot’ in the literature, Andrea Schneiker will draw on the linking pin concept, which originated in organizational studies, and combine it with concepts of organizational life cycles that allow us to identify different phases of inter-organizational cooperation. Based on an analysis of security-related cooperation among humanitarian NGOs, she will illustrate the merit of these two concepts and their combination and further refine them.
In her talk she will show that linking pins play different roles: they are entrepreneurs, gatekeepers, purposive practitioners and care takers. Which role they play depends on the phase of inter-organizational cooperation. By playing these different roles, linking pins are key in the initiation and maintenance of interagency cooperation.
Andrea Schneiker, Chair of Global Governance, Zeppelin University
Andrea Schneiker (she/her) is full professor of Global Governance at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Münster, after which she worked as an assistant professor at the Leibniz University of Hannover and the University of Bremen and as junior professor of Political Science at the University of Siegen. She was also visiting scholar at New York University, Radboud University Nijmegen and the Graduate Institute in Geneva.
Andrea Schneiker is the author of Humanitarian NGOs, (in)security and identity (Routledge, 2015) and co-editor of Researching non-state actors in international security (with Andreas Kruck; Routledge,2017). Her articles have been published in numerous journals, including International Studies Review, International Studies Perspectives, Comparative European Politics, Millennium, Security Dialogue, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Contemporary Security Policy, European Security, GlobalPolicy, Political Studies, Critical Military Studies, Disasters, International Political Science Review.
Astrid Skjold, Research Assistant and PhD student, International Relations / Political Science, the Graduate Institute
Annabelle Littoz-Monnet, Professor, International Relations/Political Science and Director of the Global Governance Centre, the Graduate Institute
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