Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T18:01:39.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Meditating deformalization: remarks on ‘Of experts, helpers, and enthusiasts’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 December 2020

Christian Bueger Open the ORCID record for Christian Bueger [Opens in a new window]
Christian Bueger*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Moving away from studying actors to studying practices opens a fascinating vista of global governance. Kratochwil provokes inquiry into the practical work actual people do in international relations. He helps to move beyond binaries by offering a pragmatic approach to global governance in a fragmented institutional environment. Yet, his criticism of best practices for their problems of applicability and perverse side-effects misses the existence of different kinds of best practices. Some of them have been highly successful, such as the ‘Best Management Practices to Deter Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the Coast of Somalia’. One should not underestimate the potential of practices in both advancing scientific knowledge and ‘real-world’ change.

Keywords

Actionbest practicesbinariesdeformalizationpractitionerspraxis
Type
Symposium: In the Midst of Theory and Practice: Edited by Hannes Peltonen and Knut Traisbach
Information
International Theory , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , November 2021 , pp. 546 - 551
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bernstein, Steven, and van der Ven, Hamish. 2017. “Best Practices in Global Governance.” Review of International Studies 43 (3): 534–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bueger, Christian. 2018. “Territory, Authority, Expertise: Global Governance and the Counter-Piracy Assemblage.” European Journal of International Relations 24 (3): 614–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colgan, Jeff D., and van der Graaf, Thijs. 2014. “Mechanisms of Informal Governance: Evidence from the IEA.” Journal of International Relations and Development 18 (4): 455–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Aspremont, Jean. 2008. “Softness in International Law: A Self-Serving Quest for New Legal Materials.” European Journal of International Law 19 (5): 1075–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dupuy, Pierre-Marie. 1991. “Soft Law and the International Law of the Environment.” Michigan Journal of International Law 12 (2): 420–35.Google Scholar
Kratochwil, Friedrich. 2014. The Status of Law in World Society: Meditations on the Role and Rule of Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peltonen, Hannes. 2021. “Sense and Sensibility or: Remarks on the ‘Bounds of (Non)Sense’.” International Theory 13 (3): 581–7.Google Scholar
Stone, Randall W. 2013. “Informal Governance in International Organizations: Introduction to the Special Issue.” The Review of International Organizations 8 (2): 121–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar