ABSTRACT
Who is an actor at international organizations? This chapter starts with the theoretical debate on the actor agency that emerges within international organizations. While the main schools in international relations thought have tended to present states as the main actors, the recent studies of international organizations and global governance highlight the growing importance of non-state actors. The chapter explains how the capacities of an actor depend on its position in the communication flow. From the perspective of the network theory, actors would seek to build complex networks not only within their respective levels of governance but also across them. The central argument of this chapter insists that it is networks of actors and relevant stakeholders that bear agency at international organizations. Both actors with international legal personality and other stakeholders with varying legal statuses establish networks to act at international organizations (networks as actors at international organizations). Complex networks emerge across interstate (coalitions of states), interorganizational (NGOs and private actors), and interinstitutional levels (among institutional bodies of international organizations).
