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International Organizations as Corporate Actors: Agency and Emergence in Theories of International Relations

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International Organizations as Corporate Actors: Agency and Emergence in Theories of International Relations
Preprints of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods Bonn 2008/7

International Organizations as Corporate Actors: Agency and Emergence in Theories of International Relations

Remi Maier-Rigaud

MAX PLANCK SOCIETY

Preprints of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods

Bonn 2008/7

International Organizations as Corporate Actors: Agency and Emergence in Theories of International Relations

Remi Maier-Rigaud

February 2008

Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Kurt-Schumacher-Str. 10, D-53113 Bonn http://www.coll.mpg.de

International Organizations as Corporate Actors: Agency and Emergence in Theories of International Relations

Remi Maier-Rigaud1

Introduction I. Reductionist theories of international organizations 1. Neorealism 2. Rational choice institutionalism

2 4 4 10 17 17 18 21 21 25 29 30

II. Foundations for a conceptualization of emergent international organizations 1. Symbolic interactionism 2. Social constructivism: inter-state practice matters III. Emergence, autonomy and power of international organizations 1. International organizations as emergent high-order corporate actors 2. Knowledge generation and the productive power of discourses Conclusion References

1

This chapter has benefited from many discussions within the Corporate Actors Group at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods. I want to thank Martin Beckenkamp, Julia Ellinger, Christoph Engel, Stefanie Brilon, Frank Maier-Rigaud, Andreas Nicklisch, Tobias Salz and Anne van Aken, for their helpful comments. I am also indebted to Brian Cooper for his linguistic assistance. Last but not least, I want to thank Alkuin Koelliker, who not just commented on this chapter several times in a very helpful way, but who discussed this project and provided important input from the start to the finalization of this chapter. 1

Introduction
Since the end of World War II, international organizations


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