Time to React: Book Signing and Lecture by Dr. Heidi Hardt

The Efficiency of International Organizations in Crisis Response

Tuesday, April 22, 2014 4:30 PM to 6:00 PM EDT
Buchanan Hall, D005

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About the Book
  • Offers the first known and original dataset on international organizations' rates of response to crisis and empirical evidence on decision-making in crisis response
  • Includes policy recommendations to combat delays in crisis intervention
  • Challenges the dominant paradigm on how security decision-making occurs in multilateral settings

In conflict-affected regions, delays in international response can have life or death consequences. The speed with which international organizations react to crises affects the prospects for communities to re-establish peace. Why then do some international organizations take longer than others to answer calls for intervention? To answer this question and explore options for reform, Time to React builds on contemporary scholarship with original data on response rates and interview evidence from 50 ambassadors across four leading organizations (AU, EU, OAS and OSCE). The explanation for variation in speed ultimately lies in core differences in institutional cultures across organizations. Although wealth and capabilities can strengthen a peace operation, it is the unspoken rules and social networks of peace and security committees at these organizations that dictate the pace with which an operation is established. This book offers a first analysis of the critical importance of and conditions shaping timeliness of crisis response by international organizations.

About the Author

Heidi Hardt is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington and, in July, will be joining the faculty at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of Time to React: The Efficiency of International Organizations in Crisis Response, published by Oxford University Press, and has published widely on international organizations and conflict management. Dr.

Hardt is also the recipient of the 2014-2015 Fulbright-Schuman EUI Chair to Florence, Italy. She received her MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics and her Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.

This event is open to the public and the entire Mason community. 

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