Suchergebnisse

Ten years ago Chadwick F. Alger identified a major problem in international organizations research. He decried the tendency to study international organizations primarily in terms of "their accomplishment of their explicit goals through the explicit mechanisms established for this purpose." In most cases this meant concentration on the passage or defeat of resolutions in public meetings and on the extent to which the problems addressed in these resolutions have been dealt with efficaciously through United Nations bodies. Alger suggested that "this type of inquiry does not produce the only, nor necessarily the most important, impact that the organization has on relations among members." Instead, we should devote more attention to an examination of how international organizations "affect the broader international system in which they operate even when problems are not resolved within their walls."

THE AUTHOR EXPLORES THE COINCIDENCES AND TENSIONS BETWEEN WHAT INTERNATIONAL AND INTERNAL ACTORS ARE STRIVING FOR IN TERMS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY AND CIVIL SOCIETY IN AFRICA. SHE FOCUSES ON THE COMPLEX CASE OF ZIMBABWE AND TO WHAT EXTENT OUTSIDE FORCES HAVE SHAPED ZIMBABWE'S DOMESTIC POLITICAL OUTCOMES IN RECENT YEARS. SHE ALSO ANALYZES HOW ZIMBABWE'S INTERNAL DYNAMICS ARE AFFECTING THE STATE'S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE INTERNATIONAL DONOR COMMUNITY. SHE BEGINS BY REVIEWING THE CHANGING ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL ACTORS IN AFRICA, FOCUSING ON THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS.