How can we avoid Britain being cut out of the EU’s foreign policy negotiations?

When it comes to the currently evolving renegotiation of the UK-EU relationship, much of the attention has so far been focused on the single market and on free trade issues, but EU policy areas are much broader in scope. Hylke Dijkstra argues that we now need to focus on the practicalities and to fight for continued, intensive cooperation in various areas, especially foreign policy

The Political Influence of the EU Council Secretariat in Security and Defence Policy

This article analyses the political influence of the Council Secretariat in the Common Security and Defence Policy. Using four carefully selected case studies – civilian and military operations in Aceh, Bosnia, Chad and Kosovo – and based on 105 semi-structured elite interviews, it shows that the Council Secretariat was most influential in agenda-setting and more influential in civilian than in military operations. Its prominence in agenda-setting can be explained by the pivotal position of the Council Secretariat in the policy process, which allowed it to get early involved in the various operations. The absence of strong control mechanisms and doctrine in civilian crisis management gave the Council Secretariat significant room to manoeuvre in the monitoring and rule of law missions

COVID-19 and Policy Responses by International Organizations: Crisis of Liberal International Order or Window of Opportunity?

The liberal international order is being challenged and international organizations (IOs) are a main target of contestation. Covid-19 seems to exacerbate the situation with many states pursuing domestic strategies at the expense of multilateral cooperation. At the same time, IOs have traditionally benefited from cross-border crises. This article analyzes the policy responses of IOs to the exogenous Covid-19 shock by asking why some IOs use this crisis as an opportunity to expand their scope and policy instruments? It provides a cross-sectional analysis using original data on the responses of 75 IOs to Covid-19 during the first wave between March and June 2020. It finds that the bureaucratic capacity of IOs is significant when it comes to using the crisis as an opportunity. It also finds some evidence that the number of Covid-19 cases among the member states affects policy responses and that general purpose IOs have benefited more

Institutional design for a post-liberal order: why some international organizations live longer than others

Many international organizations (IOs) are currently under pressure and the demise of the liberal international order is the talk of town. We theorize that institutional characteristics help to explain why some IOs survive external pressures where others fail. We test this argument through a survival analysis of 150 IOs (1815–2014). We find that the only significant variable explaining the death of IOs is the size of the secretariat: IOs with large bureaucracies are good at coping with external pressures. In addition, IOs with diverging preferences among members and those that are less institutionalized are more likely to be replaced with successor organizations. We find that institutional flexibility included in the treaties does not have an effect on survival. This is surprising because the purpose of flexibility clauses is precisely to deal with external shocks. Finally, we also find that systemic and domestic factors do not explain IO failure. In conclusion, we should not write off the liberal international order all too quickly: large IOs with significant bureaucratic resources are here to stay

Immune to COVID? The striking resilience of international organisations

As countries closed their borders and quarrelled over vaccines, some thought there was little role for international organisations. Yet, say Maria J Debre (University of Potsdam) and Hylke Dijkstra (Maastricht University), many have managed to carve out a role for themselves and emerged strengthened from the pandemic