Ad hoc coalitions and institutional exploitation in international security: towards a typology

Abstract

While the increasingly thick web of global, regional and sub-regional security arrangements and institutions has received ample scholarly attention, the phenomenon of ad hoc military coalitions and how they impact these institutions has been relatively little explored. We examine ad hoc coalitions in international security responses and develop a tentative typology of military responses that takes ad hoc coalitions into consideration, where we differentiate in terms of institutionalisation and duration. Following a rational-choice institutionalist logic, we argue that institutional proliferation increases the chances of institutional exploitation. We illustrate this with how states apply a pick-and-choose approach in which institutional products but not frameworks are used. They use the interoperable forces, a common culture and mainstreamed doctrine, but not the formal deployment of rapid response mechanisms of eg the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the African Union. In closing, we observe that institutional proliferation in international security facilitates a functionalist approach mainly inspired by national self-interest. Future research should examine whether this could result in dwindling relevance of international institutions, first in the domain of security, but later also in other domains.

Handbook of Regional Cooperation and Integration

“…Regional security cooperation implies an increasing attention for building 'coalitions of the willing' (Olawale and Kifle, 2018;Karlsrud and Reykers, 2020). Both NATO and the EU allow non-members to join their coalitions, specifically in contributions to the start-up of military operations, as was the case in Iraq and Afghanistan (Henke, 2019;McInnis, 2020).…”

Resource mobilization in security partnerships: Explaining cooperation and coercion in the EU’s partnership with the African Union

“…The General Programme also carries over many activities previously funded under the African Peace Facility (European Union, 2021). At the same time, new European Peace Facility assistance measures with other African security actors demonstrate that the EU is ready to balance the AU’s primary role in African security with an ability to negotiate funding with less subsidiary actors such as sub-regional organizations, member states and ad hoc coalitions (Karlsrud and Reykers, 2020). Time will tell what impact the interaction mode and volume of non-AU support will have on the agency of the AUC.…”

Verden i endring, diplomati i fatning

“…For det første: Der tiårene etter andre verdenskrig var preget av fremveksten av internasjonale institusjoner, høy oppslutning om multilateralt samarbeid og en regelbasert verdensorden, kan pendelen nå se ut til å ha snudd. Forskere har pekt på at det regelbaserte forholdet mellom stater svekkes av trender som avinstitusjonalisering (White, 2021), disintegrasjon (Vollard, 2018, bi-og minilateralisering (Mattelaer, 2019) og adhocisme (Karlsrud & Reykers, 2020). Nasjonalistiske og høyrepopulistiske krefter har vunnet terreng i mange stater, og utfordrer de liberale grunnverdiene som lenge har dominert i Vesten (Holm, 2020).…”