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Transgovernmental Relations and International Organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Robert O. Keohane  and
Joseph S. Nye
Robert O. Keohane
Affiliation:
Stanford University
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Abstract

Students of world politics have tended to assume that states act as units. Yet trans-governmental relations—direct interactions among sub-units not controlled or closely guided by the policies of cabinets or chief executives—are frequently important. Trans-governmental relations are facilitated by extensive personal contacts among officials and by conflicts of interest between departments or agencies within modern governments. International organizations can play important roles in transgovernmental networks by (i) affecting the definition of issues; (2) promoting coalitions among governmental subunits with similar interests; and (3) serving as points of policy intervention in trans-national systems. As policy interdependence among developed-country governments becomes more extensive and complex, these roles of international organizations are likely to become increasingly important. Internationalism of this relatively informal, non-institutionalized type is not a “dead end.”

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , October 1974 , pp. 39 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1974

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References

1 For a general discussion, see Keohane, Robert O. and Nye, Joseph S. Jr., eds., Trans-national Relations and World Politics (Cambridge, Mass. 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For documentation of the point based on a survey of the literature, see John R. Handelman, John A. Vas-quez, Michael K. O'Leary, and William D. Coplin, “Color it Morgenthau: A Data-Based Assessment of Quantitative International Relations Research,” paper delivered to the International Studies Association, March 1973.

2 Huntington, Samuel P., “Transnational Organizations in World Politics,” World Politics, xxv (April 1973), 333–68Google Scholar; quotations from pp. 338, 339, and 368 respectively.

3 Ibid., 358.

4 Ibid., 348–49.

5 This is a slight modification of our usage in the volume cited above. We used the term “transnational interactions” to refer to “interactions in which one actor was nongovernmental,” and the term “transnational relations” as a generic category that included both “transnational and transgovernmental interactions.” We have become convinced that this was unnecessarily confusing. For a stimulating critique of our language as well as our ideas, see Wagner, R. Harrison, “Dissolving the State: Three Recent Perspectives on International Relations,” International Organization, XXVIII (Spring 1974)Google Scholar.

6 Karl Kaiser has been a pioneer in developing arguments about what he calls “multi-bureaucratic politics.” See in particular his “Transnational Politics: Toward a Theory of Multinational Politics,” International Organization, xxv (Autumn 1971), and “Trans-national Relations as a Threat to the Democratic Process,” in Keohane and Nye (fn. 1).

7 Testimony of Francis Bator before the Subcommittee on Foreign Economic Policy, Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, July 25, 1972. U. S. Foreign Economic Policy: Implications for the Organization of the Executive Branch, 110–11.

8 See Campbell, John F., The Foreign Affairs Fudge Factory (New York 1971), 204 ff.Google Scholar, for figures on the United States. On Britain, see Sampson, Anthony, “The Institutions of British Foreign Policy,” in Kaiser, Karl and Morgan, Roger, eds., Britain and West Germany: Changing Societies and the Future of Foreign Policy (London 1971)Google Scholar.

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18 Our thinking on the subject of elite networks was stimulated by our friend and valued colleague, the late Ivan Vallier, who was undertaking systematic research on elite networks in Latin America until his death in January 1974.

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21 This definition is based on the article by William A. Garrison on “Coalitions,” in theInternational Encyclopedia of Social Science.

22 Theodore Geiger and Roger Hansen, “The Role of Information in Decision Making on Foreign Aid,” in Bauer and Gergen (fn. 9).

23 Based on conversations with a participant (1973).

24 New York Times, December 9, 1972.

25 Edward Miles, “Transnationalism in Space: Inner and Outer,” in Keohane and Nye (fn. 1).

26 Based on conversations with a participant (1972).

27 In the cases of the weather bureau and the Spanish bases, the United States Government was divided while the smaller state apparently had a relatively unified policy. In terms of coherence, these relationships were asymmetrical in favor of Canada and Spain, respectively. Spain, Nationalist China, Israel, and Canada are among the countries that have taken advantage of the size and diversity of the United States Government to create asymmetries of coherence in their favor to counter asymmetries of power in favor of the United States. See Keohane, Robert O., “The Big Influence of Small Allies,” Foreign Policy, 11 (Spring 1971)Google Scholar. For Canadian cases, see Swanson, Roger, “The United States Canadian Constellation I: Washington, D. C,” International Journal, XXVII (Spring 1972), 185–218CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Holsti (fn. 18); and Nye, J. S., “Transnational Relations and Interstate Conflict: An Empirical Analysis,” International Organization, XXVIII (Autumn 1974)Google Scholar.

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33 James Magee discusses a situation in which FAO bureaucrats conspired with African governments to thwart the director's decision to relocate two offices. “EGA and the Paradox of African Cooperation,” International Conciliation, No. 580 (November 1970).

34 See Gordenker, Leon, “Multilateral Aid and Influence on Government Policies,” in Cox, Robert W., ed., International Organization: World Politics (London 1969)Google Scholar. A related example is provided by the Jackson Report, which indicated that its investigations “revealed example after example where Departmental Ministers have advocated policies in the governing bodies of the particular agency which concerned them (e.g., a Minister of Agriculture in FAO, or a Minister of Education in UNESCO) which were in direct conflict with his government's policies toward the UN system as a whole.” United Nations, A Study of the Capacity of the United Nations Development System, Vol. I (Geneva 1969), v.

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37 John G. Ruggie, “The World Weather Watch,” unpub., 1972.

38 Based on conversations with Strong during 1972.

39 Bauer, Raymond, Pool, Ithiel de Sola, and Dexter, Lewis, American Business and Foreign Policy (New York 1963), chap. 35, esp. pp. 472–75Google Scholar.

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44 Where a larger number of countries is involved, problems of effectiveness become much more complex, and interdependence is likely to be more intricate.

45 This situation was described to us by two government officials. See also Hollick, Ann, “Seabeds make Strange Politics,” Foreign Policy, IX (Winter 1972–73)Google Scholar.

46 Russell, Robert W., “Transgovernmental Interaction in the International Monetary System, 1960–1972,” International Organization, XXVII (Autumn 1973)Google Scholar.

47 See Kaiser in Keohane and Nye (fn. 6).

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