Why do International Organisations Never Die?
Strange, Susan. “Why do International Organisations Never Die?.” In Autonomous Policy Making by International Organisations, edited by Bob Reinalda, Bertjan Verbeek, 213-220. London: Routledge, 1998.
In this concluding chapter of a collection of articles drawn from a series of workshops organised under the auspices of the ECPR, Strange reflects on the legacy of The Anatomy of Influence (see ‘‘IMF: Monetary Managers’ [1974]) and suggests that a focus on international organisation remains a largely European enterprise due to the continuing dominance of liberal institutionalism and (neo)Realism. After applauding the project in the first section, she then turns to some criticisms of the collection’s contributors. She suggests that some of the authors have been unable to avoid capture by their subjects and are too kind to the self-perpetuating bureaucracies and secretariats of many international organisations. She argues that these bureaucracies have a symbiotic relationship with the members’ governments and thus are able to ride out many local problems. Lastly she briefly alludes (again) to the failure to include the impact of changes in market conditions, changes in technology and the role of MNCs in the international political economic analysis of international organisations.
Keywords: Corporations; Europe; International Institutions; Theory; Transnational Corporations