Adhocism: Ad hoc crisis responses and international organisations

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Earthquake disaster. Image credit: Angelo Giordano/Pixabay

Most international organisations (IOs) are created with the aim of solving collective action problems when a crisis arises. Yet, member states have repeatedly established ad hoc crisis responses in situations where IOs might be expected to play a central role.

Ad hoc crisis responses are here understood as loose groups of actors that agree to solve a particular crisis at a given time and location outside of an existing IO in the same policy domain.

Surprisingly, this key characteristic of current global governance has so far attracted little attention. The ADHOCISM project seeks to contribute to filling this gap through a systematic study of ad hoc crisis responses in two policy domains: security and health. With this paired comparison, ADHOCISM seeks to tap into a broader empirical governance phenomenon.