INGOs Cooperation with the OECD: The Politics of Mutual Interest in the International Dialogue for State Building and Peacebuilding

The goal of this paper is to analyze the role of INGOs in the international policy process behind the New Deal for Peace, initiated by the OECD in collaboration with conflict-affected and fragile countries, country donors and, civil society organizations. Following previous analysis about transnational civil society and international relations, we argue that the OECD and INGOs work as partners more than contenders bringing together opposing positions of the conflict affected countries, the country donor’s governments as well as with the local civil society organizations. Our aim is twofold; first we want to go deeper in the conceptualization of politicization of the international arena, linking this discussion with the methodological challenges to understand this politicization. Here the question would be when and how issues such as peacebuilding become politicized beyond the national arena of the conflicted countries and which is the role of INGOs in this process. Second, we will explore how this conceptualization fits in the case of the New Deal for Peace, analyzing by one hand INGOs mobilization strategies to politicize the issue at international and national level and by other the pattern of interaction with the OECD. The paper emphasizes how both international actors mobilize by: 1) using their expertise in the issue to provide useful information to the relevant actors and using their intermediate position (between local and international policy actors) to open new policy opportunities; 2) pushing to set the domestic agenda both in the affected country and in the international governments involved in the process. This is paper is part of a wider research agenda about world order and the role of INGOs and IO in the politicization of international issues such as peace, poverty, and sustainable development.