International Organizations and Research Methods

“This book is a terrific achievement. It not only provides the novice and the experienced researcher with a complete menu of methods to choose from when analyzing international organizations. The authors also take care to address cross-cutting questions of epistemology, positionality, and research ethics that we should all be aware of.”

“Politicians, pundits, and the public undervalue international organizations. Too few scholars understand enough about the nuts-and-bolts to dispel this inaccurate image. Not the team assembled in these pages, however. They detail not only why institutions matter but how to analyze these essential actors in contemporary world politics.”

“This book is original and innovative, as it is the first companion to provide a broad and thoughtful inventory of research methods used in the social sciences and humanities to understand what international organizations are and what they do: so very helpful!”

“International Organizations and Research Methods fills a gaping hole in the IO literature and will be particularly valuable to graduate students and IO researchers with its diversity of methods and authors covering a range of UN specialized agencies and IOs in different issue areas and regions. The book's introduction provides a very useful overview of what the book aims to do and not do and how the editors define methods as a reflexive part of the research process. The innovative use of boxes is a great way to present specific tools and ‘tricks,’ including interviewing in a foreign language and analyzing tweets.”

"[The book] will be useful for students looking for an entry point into a fascinating social world; for researchers wanting to dabble in new methods; for lecturers integrating case-studies from international politics in their teaching; and for practitioners seeking to understand how research is conducted on their employer(s). Consequently, the book provides the first systematic survey of how scholars of international organizations think about their research subject, their own positionality, and their interactions with the institutions themselves."