Why States act through formal IOs- Abbott and Snidal

-Read examples on first page

-IOs dispute resolution, reduce likelihood of violence, facilitating negotiation,

implementation of agreements, managing conflicts, technical assistance, elaborating
norms, shaping international discourse.
-IOs reach out many issues (health, war, education, science, economy)

-Two characteristics that explain why states act through IOs:

Centralization: :IOs allow for the centralization of collective activities
through a concrete and stable organizational structure and a supportive
administrative apparatus. These increase the efficiency pf collective activities
and enhance the organizations ability to affect the understandings,
environment and interests of states.

Independence: The ability to act with a degree of autonomy withindefined

spheres. Neutral stand vis-a-vis conflicts and issues.
BUT could be constrained by member states and their interests.

Putting IOs into theory and theory into IOs

-Assumptions: state are primary actors, they use IOs to create social orderings to
reach their shared goals.
-Regime theory (Krasner and Keohane) focuses on the institutional cooperation of
international organization. Institutional factors affecting cooperation but downplay
institutional roles of IOs. Doesnt treat IOs as serious political entities.
-Decentralized cooperation theory: problematic of international governance as the
existence of coordination and collaboration problems requiring collective action.
Assumption: anarchy cooperation through reciprocity and self-help. Cooperation
is unlikely without institutional context.
Preference of institutional capacities rather than centralized enforcement.
-Keohane: regimes help cooperation through the reduction of transaction costs,
improvement of information and the rise of costs of violations.
IOs s forums where state can interact more efficiently.
-Constructivist theory: focuses on norms, beliefs, knowledge and understandings.
Social constructions as fundamental elements in international politics.

The functions of IOs: centralization and independence

-Centralization reduces transaction costs through formal organization, the capacity

to manage in a hierarchical way
-Seperation of ownership and control: member states grant some authority to IOs
but supervise them.
Centralization

-Stable negotiation forum

-Centralization shapes political context of state interactions
-Consultative and supportive functions for decentralized cooperation.
-Pooling (ex: World Bank)
-Joint Production (ex: NATO)
-Norm elaboration and coordination

Independence

-Powerful states will not enter an organization they cannot influence, yet
undermining the independence of an organization performing the functions
discussed here will simultaneously reduce its effectiveness and their own ability to
achieve valued ends.

-IOs are more capable of pushing negotiations forward because they are neutral,
independent third party.

-Unacceptable activities between states become more acceptable through IOs.

-More reliable information delivered through IOs.

-IOs are able to allocate resources to provide services.

-IOs are a community of states.

-Courts community police.

-IOs are avenues of enforcement: they can pressure states to change their behavior,
or conditionality, or sanctions