Webinar about: Why International Organizations Hate Politics. Depoliticizing the World, Routledge, Global Institutions Series, 2021
Building on the concept of depoliticization, this book provides a first systematic analysis of International Organizations (IO) apolitical claims. It shows that depoliticization sustains IO everyday activities while allowing them to remain engaged in politics, even when they pretend not to.
Delving into the inner dynamics of global governance, this book develops an analytical framework on why IO “hate” politics by bringing together practices and logics of depoliticization in a wide variety of historical, geographic and organizational contexts. With multiple case studies in the fields of labor rights and economic regulation, environmental protection, development and humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, this book shows that depoliticization is enacted in a series of overlapping, sometimes mundane, practices resulting from the complex interaction between professional habits, organizational cultures and individual tactics. By approaching the consequences of these practices in terms of logics, the book addresses the instrumental dimension of depoliticization without assuming that IO actors necessarily intend to depoliticize their action or global problems.
Speakers: Marieke Louis is Associate Professor in Political Science and International Relations at Sciences Po Grenoble.
She currently works on international organizations and economic diplomacy through the activities of transnational business actors within multilateral institutions since the beginning of the 20th century. She recently co-edited Le tournant social de l’international. Les organisations internationales face aux sociétés civiles (Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2021, with Olivier Nay and Delphine Lagrange)
Lucile Maertens is lecturer in political science and international relations at the Institute of Political Studies of the University of Lausanne and member of the Centre of International History and Political Studies of Globalization (CRHIM).
Her research focuses on international organizations’ action, especially in the fields of global environmental politics and international security. She has published her work in Critique internationale, European Journal of International Security, Études internationales, International Peacekeeping, International Politics. Her latest article “Climatizing the UN Security Council” is available online in Open Access. She has co-authored Why International Organizations Hate Politics. Depoliticizing the World with Marieke Louis (Routledge, forthcoming).
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