International Organization in Time: Fragmentation and Reform

by Tine Hanrieder

Overview

International Organization in Time investigates why reformers often pledge to unify international organizations, but end up fragmenting them instead. The book reconstructs the institutional history of the World Health Organization (WHO) since its creation in 1946. It theorizes the fragmentation trap, which is both a cause and a consequence of reform failure in the WHO. A comparison between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) illustrates the relevance of path dependence and fragmentation across the United Nations (UN) system. As the UN approaches its 70th anniversary, this book helps to understand the path dependent dynamics that reformers encounter in international organizations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198705833
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/18/2015
Pages:	196
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Tine Hanrieder is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Global Governance research unit of the WZB Berlin Social Science Research Center. Her research fields are International Organization, Global Health Politics, and International Theory. Her work has been published in journals including the European Journal of International Relations, Security Dialogue, the Journal of International Relations, and Development and International Theory.

Table of Contents

1. Reforming international organizations in the shadow of fragmentation2. The centrifugal reproduction of international organizations3. Locking in a Pan American headstart: the long founding moment of the World Health Organization4. The secondary effects of Primary Health Care5. One WHO: new managerialism, old structures, and the simulation of corporate agency6. Decentralization and fragmentation in the United Nations: comparing ILO and UNESCO7. Implications: Reform and fragmentation in global governanceAppendices

Editorial Reviews

"Hanrieder's perceptive books details several failed attemptes to reform the World Health Organizaton by aiming to reverse the organization's fragmentation and to introduce greater coherence into its policies and practices. ...its discouraging analysis is valuable and applicable to many organizations." -Foreign Affairs

"Hanrieder's book is a theoretically insightful and empirically rich contribution to the study of the design and change of international organizations in several ways: First, in demonstrating that IO creation and change cannot be sufficiently accounted for by rationalist institutionalist accounts. Rather, historical contingency and path dependence matter. Second, in drawing attention to and analysing the un-intended effects of organizational reforms which are often overlooked when reforms are evaluated, but which may be much more decisive for the design and working of an organization than the reform's original goals." — Angela Heucher, Global Affairs, Taylor and Francis Online

From the Publisher