Inter-Organizational Cooperation in Conflict Early Warning and Response: Qualitative Study of Heavyweights in Horn of Africa and Central Asia.

A variety of inter- and intra-state violent conflicts around the globe creates an urgent impetus for early warning and response measures in the face of ever-changing threats. Often trans-national and internationalized nature of these conflict calls for the growing role of international inter- and non-governmental organizations. Considering the overlap in purposes and activities, as well as constant lack of resources, cooperation among international organizations of different ‘calibres’ seems like a plausible solution. The paper aims to explore whether and to what extent inter-organizational cooperation takes place in conflict early warning and response, such as preventive diplomacy and mediation. In particular, the focus is on the ‘heavyweights’ in the field, namely United Nations, European Union, regional organizations such as OSCE and African Union, as well as INGOs - the International Crisis Group and International Alert. The particular focus is on two Global South regions where groups of the above-mentioned organizations interact: Horn of Africa and Central Asia. Starting from the overview of a normative basis, scope, and nature of partnerships in preventing violent conflicts, the work sets to explore factors of influence on decision-making in cooperation. For these purposes, an array of primary sources originating from the international organizations (resolutions, decisions, memoranda, press releases, etc.) and secondary literature are to be examined by the means of qualitative cross-case analysis.