Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Since 1990, Europe has experienced an unprecedented proliferation of security institutions. This has implied a significant overlap or even duplication of assignments to the EU, NATO, the OSCE and additional sub-regional organizations in terms of policy areas, policy functions and policy issues. This might generate greater flexibility for decision makers concerning their search for the most appropriate institutional framework for coping with specific issues. However, it also generates costs in terms of time, money and legitimacy because it often leads to cumbersome attempts to coordinate inter-institutional consultations, coordination and operational cooperation. The paper identifies patterns of problems on these three levels of inter-institutional cooperation. Moreover, it asks what kind of patterns of solutions have evolved in order to tackle these cooperation problems on the inter-organizational and on the intergovernmental level.