Research Project at the Centre
External Legitimation Dynamics and Internal Working Practices of Informal Clubs of Nation States
This research project aims at identifying the specificities of transnational cooperation through informal clubs of nation states. It approaches Club Governance arrangements such as the G7, BRICS, and the Alliance of Small Island States from two perspectives: From an external perspective, it examines interactive legitimation dynamics between the legitimacy claims of clubs on the one side and their external audiences on the other. From an internal perspective, the project explores the day-to-day practices of informal intergovernmental institutions across policy fields and world regions and how informal institutional designs become manifest in inter-personal cooperation. I consider a closer inspection of informal clubs, their varieties, and their day-to-day routines to be an important part of the larger project of illuminating the multifaceted empirical patterns of transnational cooperation and its legitimacy.