Why International Organzations Hate Politics
Learn more about how and why IOs depoliticize the world
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“We don’t do politics!” Every researcher embarked in the field of international organizations has heard this at least once from international bureaucrats, governmental delegates or civil society representatives engaged in multilateral negotiations. This book takes this apolitical claim seriously and questions the politics of IOs by building on the concept of depoliticization.
Delving into the inner dynamics of global governance, it develops an analytical framework on why IOs “hate” politics by bringing together practices and logics of depoliticization in a wide variety of historical, geographic and organizational contexts. With multiple case studies in the fields of labor rights and economic regulation, environmental protection, development and humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, among others this book shows that depoliticization sustains IO everyday activities while allowing them to remain engaged in politics, even when they pretend not to.
For IO scholars and students, this book sheds new light on IO politics by clarifying one often taken-for-granted dimension of their everyday activities, precisely that of depoliticization. It will also be of interest to other researchers working in the fields of political science, international relations, international political sociology, international political economy, international public administration, history, law, sociology, anthropology and geography as well as IO practitioners.
In French: Just out and available in open access
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La dépolitisation du monde
Marieke Louis et Lucile Maertens
Les débats sur l’utilité des organisations internationales pendant la pandémie de COVID-19 ou la guerre en Ukraine illustrent le poids des attentes qui reposent sur ces institutions, malgré leur affirmation de ne pas intervenir dans le champ politique. Cet ouvrage prend cette revendication au sérieux et étudie la manière dont ces organisations s’efforcent de « dépolitiser le monde ».
Podcasts and online presentations
Why International Organizations Hate Politics
June 2022
A discussion with Amy Smith for The Next Page recorded and produced at the United Nations Library & Archives Geneva.
Depoliticization of international organizations: between functional necessity and pragmatism
May 2022
This week in International Horizons, RBI director John Torpey talked with Marieke Louis and Lucile Maertens about the trending depoliticization of international organizations and its effects for achieving results and enhancing cooperation.
Dépolitiser le monde
May 2022
Les entretiens de l’Observatoire du multilatéralisme et des organisations internationales.
The Global Machinery: Revisiting Technocracy, Depoliticization and International Organizations
November 2021
Book launch and discussion of Why International Organizations Hate Politics: Depoliticizing the World and International Organizations as Technocratic Utopia (by Jens Steffek), organized with the Research Centre “Normative Orders”, Goethe University Frankfurt, discussion by Frédéric Mérand.
Why International Organizations Hate Politics: The Case of the Environment at the UN
June 2021
Lecture series organized by the Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Políticos da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (IESP-UERJ).
Blog posts
Why International Organizations Hate Politics: The case of the ILO and UNEP
October 2021
Blog post for The Global, the academic blog managed by the Graduate Institute Geneva’s Global Governance Centre.
Why International Organization (Apparently) Hate Politics
September 2021
Blog post for The Loop, the European Consortium for Political Research’s (ECPR) Political Science Blog.
Why International Organization Hate Politics
July 2021
Interview for international-organization.com.
Pourquoi les organisations internationales détestent-elles la politique ?
May 2021
Interview for L’Actu of the University of Lausanne.
Book reviews
- Review by Cécile Crespy, “La politisation, horizon indépassable de l’action des organisations internationales ?,” Revue française de science politique, 2022, 72(4): 597-600, https://doi.org/10.3917/rfsp.724.0597.
- Review by Jan Eijking, “Looking for Utopia: Experts and Global Governance,” Journal of International Political Theory, 2022, 18(2): 262-272, https://doi.org/10.1177/17550882221080780.
- Review by Salih Bora, “Logiques du rétrécissement politique,” Observatory of International Organizations and Multilateralism, 2022.
- Review by Burcu Ucaray-Mangitli, International Affairs, 2021, 97(4): 1252-1254, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiab086