Description
International organisations (IOs) work together to address global challenges. The literature on inter-organisational relations has focused on formal connections between IOs and specific instances of cooperation, overlooking long-term effects that IOs have on norms, policies, and practices in other IOs. But it is unable to explain the complexity of the international ecosystem in which the transfer occurs. In this article, we analyse how African Union’s relations with partners have influenced the development of policy and practice of its peace support operations over the past decade based on process tracing and elite interviews. Our research points to three key findings. First, inter-organisational interactions take place between complex entities with a multitude of departments, units, and individual officials. Second, inter-organisational exchanges involve not only IOs, but also external actors: academic experts, private contractors, think tanks, and civil society representatives, who shape how the IO considers policies and practices that circulate in its environment. Third, inter-organisational transfer is rarely unidirectional and uncontested: the process is fraught with struggles over expertise along regional and professional lines. It happens in an unequal terrain where dependency upon partners constrains the recipient IO, which, as a result, retains varying degrees of ownership of its norms, policies, and practices. Taken together, these three findings point to the need for a nuanced view of inter-organisational influence that recognises the complexity and contingency inherent in inter-organisational relations.
