Legitimizing Global-Regional Cooperation: Discursive Frictions and the Success of Multilevel Security Operations

• Applicant: Dr. Kilian Spandler
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: from 2017 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 377842675

The proposed project has the overarching objective to analyze and compare the impact of different legitimizing discourses on the emergence and success of security cooperation between global and regional organizations. While such multilevel action is raising hopes among policy-makers and academics, the record of existing operations is mixed and some organizational actors are highly reluctant towards cooperation despite its purported benefits. These problems make obvious that the potential advantages of global-regional security cooperation can only be reaped if the relevant actors perceive it as legitimate: the proponents of collaboration have to make the case that a given security problem ought to be addressed jointly by global and regional organizations. However, finding common ground in this respect is problematic given frictions between global and regional conceptions of identity and norms. To improve our understanding of the succcess conditions for joint security missions under such complex circumstances, the project looks at three instances of cooperation between the UN and regional organizations in a comparative case study: EULEX Kosovo, UNAMID in Sudan and the Tripartite Core Group which was active in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. It examines which global and regional actors promote or oppose cooperation, and what consequences clashing ideas about legitimacy have for the implementation of collaboration initiatives. Proceeding in this manner, it highlights that successful cooperation between global and regional organizations depends on how actors talk about it. The project thus contributes to the highly topical debate on the possibility and legitimacy of global governance in a world that is characterized by increasingly complex interaction patterns, and is therefore of relevance for International Relations scholars as well as the policy-makers of international organizations.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: Sweden
• Host: Professor Dr. Fredrik Söderbaum