In a new book, Andrew F. Cooper (University Research Chair and Professor, Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo) provides a detailed overview of the contest over international institutions. Drawing on a wide range of scholarship in fields such as international organization, international relations, and international political economy, this book breaks with the widely accepted image of an advance of global governance supported by institutionalized formality, arguing instead for the retention of informal institutionalism. Rather than endorsing the view that world politics is moving inexorably toward a multilateral, rules-based order, Cooper places the onus on the resilience of a hierarchical, self-selected concert model. He reframes the debate with a wider set of highly contested questions: the nature of rules at the global level, the salience of institutional clubs, and the impact of inequality and cooperation among states across the Global North/South divide.
Join the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future for the U.S. book launch of The Concertation Impulse in World Politics (Oxford University Press, 2024), featuring the book’s author, Andrew F. Cooper. The event will feature the Pardee School of Global Studies’ Sanne Verschuren and Grant F. Rhode as discussants, and will be moderated by Pardee Center Interim Director Amb. Jorge Heine.
The event will take place on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 from 4:00-5:30 pm at the Pardee Center (67 Bay State Road). Refreshments will be provided. Please register to attend below.