The goal of this paper is to investigate the impact the design of inter-organizational relations has on the substance of cooperation among dyads. In order to do so, we need to look both at the intra- and the inter-organizational level of decision-making. How do decisions on cooperation with other organizations come about? The general argument is that principals face an intricate efficiency-control dilemma when designing cooperation with another organization. The inclination to rely on a control-privileging approach has motivated member-states to resort both to unanimity within and among organizations and to delegation to those within organizations who are best to control, mostly the Ambassadors. However, this approach risks undermining efficient cooperation and stimulates cooperation-oriented principals to resort to informal channels of coordination. EU-NATO relations most obviously illustrate this dilemma.
