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Money or Mandate? Why International Organizations Engage with the Climate Change Regime

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  • Nina Hall

Abstract

Inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) engage with other regimes, particularly in climate change, where an increasing number of IGOs participate in the annual negotiations. None of the three dominant explanations for this behavior—statist, substantive issue linkage, and resource-dependency theory—adequately accounts for variation in the nature of IGO engagement. This article proposes that variation is best captured by organizational type. Normative organizations have a legal mandate to supervise a body of international law, are strongly wedded to their core mandate, and are less likely to engage with new issues. Functional organizations are project-oriented, seek to maximize resources, and are more likely to engage with new issues. A comparative case study of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) illustrates how organization type explains variation in their rhetoric, structure, and policy. UNHCR, a normative organization, was more reluctant than IOM, a functional organization, to engage with climate change displacement and migration debates. This article calls for international relations scholars to investigate how differences in IGO design lead to differences in organizational behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Nina Hall, 2015. "Money or Mandate? Why International Organizations Engage with the Climate Change Regime," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(2), pages 79-97, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:tpr:glenvp:v:14:y:2014:i:4:p:79-97
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Ece Kural & Lisa Maria Dellmuth & Maria-Therese Gustafsson, 2021. "International organizations and climate change adaptation: A new dataset for the social scientific study of adaptation, 1990–2017," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Adrian Robert Bazbauers, 2022. "Translating climate strategies into action: An analysis of the sustainable, green, and resilient city action plans of the multilateral development banks," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(2), March.
    4. Magnus Benzie & Åsa Persson, 2019. "Governing borderless climate risks: moving beyond the territorial framing of adaptation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 369-393, October.

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