Networks of Influence?: Developing Countries in a Networked Global Order

Networks are thriving in global politics. Some bring policy-makers from different countries together to share problems and to forge possible solutions, free from rules of representation, decision-making, and transparency which constrain more formal international organizations. This book asks whether developing countries can benefit from such networks? Or are they safer to conduct their international relations in formal institutions? The answer varies. The key lies in how the network is structured and what it sets out to achieve. This book presents a fascinating account of how some networks have strengthened the position of developing country officials, both at home, and in their international negotiations. Equally, it points to conditions which make it perilous for developing countries to rely on networks. Contributors to this volume - Khadija Bah currently serves as an Advisory Group Member for the Inter-Regional Facility for Inequality and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Sir Nicholas Bayne, KCMG, is a Fellow at the International Trade Policy Unit of the London School of Economics and Political Science. Kenneth G. Coates has been the Director General of the Centre for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA) since January 2001. Gerry Helleiner is Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, and Distinguished Research Fellow, Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. Alex Matheson is currently a New Zealand-based adviser on Public Governance and Management. Matthew Martin is director of Debt Relief International and Development Finance International. Leonardo Martinez-Diaz is Political Economy Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution. Helen E. S. Nesadurai is Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. Jochen Prantl is a Senior Research Fellow in International Relations at Oxford University and a Research Fellow of Nuffield College. Vanessa Rubio-Marquez is Spokeswoman and Head of the Promotion and Institutional Relations Unit of the Mexican Pension System Regulator (CONSAR). Richard Webb Duarte is an international consultant and Director of the Institute del Peru at the University of San Martin de Porres. Myles Wickstead was educated at St Andrews' University and New College Oxford. Most of his career has been spent in the Department for International Development and its predecessors and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Ngaire Woods is Professor of International Political Economy and Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme at University College, Oxford University.