ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights important common themes within the politics of inter-organizational relations in international security. It investigates the politics of nesting between the United Nations (UN) and regional Multilateral Organizations (MOs), the negotiation of overlap in intra-regional and inter-regional relationships, and the complexity of governing specific security issues across multiple scales. The hierarchical nature of the relationship between the UN and regional MOs remains key to the debate about ongoing shifts in the global order. The global-regional relationship of the UN and regional MOs are not the only inter-organizational relationships in international security that are shaped by how the mandates, capacities and legitimacy of MOs are negotiated in relation to one another. The chapter also provides an overview of this book. The book demonstrates the dynamic in the UN's relationship with the African Union. It highlights the ways in which cross-border crises often become drivers of inter-organizational cooperation and transformation.
