Abstract

Why and how international organizations (IOs) collaborate, cooperate and coordinate (the 3Cs) are important but understudied issues in international political economy today. The three terms are rarely defined in the IR literature or by the IOs themselves and are often used interchangeably. However, the differences matter in terms of when, how and why staff of different IOs are expected to work together, and whether and how such efforts contribute to IO performance. This article develops the concepts of the 3Cs, drawing from work in the public administration, management and organizational design fields. It illustrates ways in which the differences matter by examining the history of efforts by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to work together. The two Bretton Woods siblings were explicitly designed to be complementary partners at the apex of the post-World War II global economic order. I argue that formal collaboration efforts between the Fund and the Bank took place through at least 25 attempts by the two institutions to define how to work together, and may be categorized into four different, sometimes overlapping approaches, from basic information sharing to fully engaged joint initiatives. What they have called ‘collaboration’ is in fact a range of engagement. Efforts by the Fund and Bank to work more closely together have been an ongoing struggle, driven by unavoidable institutional overlap, which intensified at times of systemic change and external shock. This case is important to the study of how IOs work together, given these institutions have a unique relationship and may be seen as a most-likely case of successful collaboration.

摘要

国际组织 (IO) 为何以及如何协作、合作和协调（3C）是当今国际政治经济学中重要但尚未得到充分研究的问题。这三个术语很少在 IR 文献或 IO 本身中定义，并且经常互换使用。然而，不同信息办的工作人员何时、如何以及为何一起工作，以及这些努力是否以及如何有助于信息办绩效方面的差异很重要。本文借鉴公共行政、管理和组织设计领域的工作，发展了 3C 概念。它通过审视国际货币基金组织（IMF）和世界银行合作的历史，说明了差异的重要性。布雷顿森林体系的两个兄弟姐妹被明确设计为成为二战后全球经济秩序顶峰的互补伙伴。我认为，国际货币基金组织和世行之间的正式合作努力是通过两个机构至少 25 次尝试来确定如何合作而进行的，并且可以分为四种不同的、有时重叠的方法，从基本信息共享到充分参与的联合倡议。他们所谓的“协作”实际上是一系列的参与。国际货币基金组织和世行为更紧密地合作所做的努力一直是一场持续的斗争，其原因是不可避免的机构重叠，而这种重叠在发生系统性变化和外部冲击时会加剧。这个案例对于研究 IO 如何协同工作很重要，