The Politics of International Organizations ― Views from the Inside

"International organisations (IOs) often receive a bad press, seen as intrusive, domineering and unresponsive to the needs of the people and countries they are meant to serve. They are also seen as sclerotic bureaucracies, unable to move fast or to solvethe intractable problems of the countries that need their assistance. The best way to understand the operation of these international organisations is to bring together those who represent their countries at IOs and those who have been working at IOs at various capacities and then to listen to their experiences. The book will set the scene through a theoretical introduction to ask the questions, and then features chapters on each IO from experts, with comments and additional insights from experienced practitioners or observers, and a conclusion that explicitly draws out the comparative lessons and contrasts the insights of practitioners from those of external observers. It seeks to develop an alternative approach to the analysis of IOs that takes accountof all those involved, whether state representatives, IO leaders and members of the secretariat. Providing a well informed, innovative and consistently structured analysis of IOs this work will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, international organizations and global governance. "--

Patrick Weller and Xu Yi-chong are professors in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University.

Patrick Weller has been writing about political executives for the past 40 years. Among his books on Australian politics are:Can Ministers Cope? (1981, co-author), Malcolm Fraser Prime Minister (1989),Dodging raindrops: John Button A Labor Life (1999), Australia’s Mandarins (2001),Don’t tell the prime minister (2002), Cabinet Government in Australia (2007),Learning to be a Minister (2010, co-author) and From Post box to Powerhouse: a Centenary History of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (2011, co-author).

His comparative books include First among Equals: prime ministers in Westminster systems(1985), The Hollow Crown (co-edited 1997), The changing world of top officials (co-edited 2001),Westminster Legacies (co-edited, 2005) and Westminster Compared (co-authored 2009). He has acted as a consultant for state and federal governments. In 2009-10 he was a member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Group on Reform of Australian Government Administration.

Xu Yi-chong is the author of Powering China, Reforming the electric power industry in China(2002), Electricity reform in China, India and Russia: The World Bank Template and the Politics of Power (2004) andThe Politics of Nuclear Energy in China (2010). She is (co) editor of The Politics of Sovereign Wealth Funds (2010),Nuclear Development in Asia (2011) and The Political Economy of State-owned Enterprises in China and India, (2012). She is currently undertaking research on state-owned enterprises in China