Amid a crisis of multilateralism on a continent rocked by war, this timely book shines light on the numerous international organizations that have brought together EU and non-EU countries in Europe since the Cold War ended and the Balkans fragmented. These regional and subregional intergovernmental organizations (IOs) – which have evolved and multiplied - provide fertile ground for the author’s examination of international organization formalization, financing, overlap, adaptation, identity-building, proliferation, and persistence.
Based on extensive new field research, including elite interviews with IO and government staff from across Central and Southeastern Europe, this study explores the interplay of IO member state interests, external actors, resources, and staff agency in the emergence and persistence of intergovernmental organizations. With dividing lines across Europe reified, it also highlights organizations working to bridge gaps between EU member states and aspirants in the context of Euro-Atlantic integration.
This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of international organizations, regional cooperation, comparative regionalism, EU enlargement, and Southeastern Europe (including the Western Balkans). It will also appeal to practitioners and policymakers with an interest in Europe and international cooperation.
Amid a crisis of multilateralism on a continent rocked by war, this timely book shines light on the numerous international organizations that have brought together EU and non-EU countries in Europe since the Cold War ended and the Balkans fragmented.
PART I: International Organization Establishment and Design 1 Bringing
the Rest of Europe into the Study of Intergovernmental Organizations 2
Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Emergence of Regional Organizations: Two
Sides of a Coin 3 A Typology of Europes Post-Cold War Regional Organizations
PART II: International Organization Persistence and Adaptation 4 Organization
Persistence and Member State Interests 5 Financing Europes (Sub)regional IOs
6 Adaptation and Agency for Persistence: Theory and Practice of
Organizational Change Part III: Outcomes and Challenges of Organized
Cooperation in Southeastern Europe 7 Organization Outcomes, Overlap, and
Obstacles 8 Conclusion: Bridging Europes Divides through Regional
Organizations
Melanie H. Ram is Professor of Political Science at California State University, Fresno. She studies international organizations, EU enlargement, and Central and Eastern Europe. Her work on intergovernmental organizations (IOs) and European integration has appeared in Global Governance, Journal of International Organizations Studies, Europe - Asia Studies, Comparative European Politics, Ethnopolitics, and Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe, among others. These explore IO agenda-setting, IO-IO coordination, EU conditionality, NGO advocacy, and policies on Roma inclusion.
