What makes a “regime complex” complex? It depends

Abstract

What makes the collections of international institutions or regimes governing various domains—called in theliterature regime, institutional, or governance complexes—“complex”? This article examines several conditions for complexity discussed in that literature and finds them necessary but not sufficient. It argues that the sufficient condition is dependence and outlines a framework of increasing levels of synchronic (social/spatial) and diachronic (temporal) dependence. Putting dependence at the centre of discussions on regime complexes has four advantages: (1) it is analytically more precise a condition than proliferation or linkage; (2) it orients us toward questions of degree, ‘how complex’, instead of the binary ‘whether complex’; (3) it informs a range of research design and theoretical choices, especially highlighting extra-dyadic dependencies and an underdeveloped temporal dimension; and (4) it arguably reconciles competing uses of the term “complex” in the literature without conflating it with complexity, structure, or topology.

A tug of war between centralization and decentralization: the co-evolution of urban governance and water risks in Guwahati, India

“…It can run the danger of 'cherry picking' events to match researcher preferences or result in 'random walks' into vaguely related data streams as there are multiple actors, institutions, and changes due to various social, built, and environmental dynamics (Mitleton-Kelly 2003). To avoid 'random walks' and 'cherry picking' among the various historical accounts, we draw on the recommendation of Klein et al (2008) and Hollway (2021). These authors state that the amount of information required to understand the complexity of a system is based on the scale and context within which observations occur.…”

“…Studying events and states both before and after the juncture is a good practice. However, if one studies future trajectories, only the post-juncture period can be examined (Hollway 2021). Therefore, the temporal boundary for this research begins at the major juncture, which for this research is the post-colonial transitions starting from when Guwahati was selected as the capital of Assam.…”

“…The key outcomes are discussed within section five and concluded via section six. The lessons drawn from this paper contribute to a South-to-South learning (Hollway 2021) into the underlying mechanisms of change in the governance of water risks that can apply to intermediate cities of the global South.…”

Negotiating regime complexity: Following a regime complex in the making

“…Still, we argue that some aspects can be considered for future research into regime complexes in other issue areas: it is not only the legal overlaps in treaty texts but also the perception of policymakers that makes the regime complex. 140 This implies that there is not one correct way to delimit the regime complex -rather, there are different levels of integration and interdependence, 141 and the right delimitation may depend on the interest and analytical focus of the researcher. While we acknowledge that state statements and, hence, the delimitation of the regime complex reflect larger geopolitical interests and conflicts, we do not address them in this paper but encourage research into the geopolitical conflicts and configuration of authority and legitimacy in complex international governance that may be represented in the delimitation of a regime complex.…”

The State in the Complex Networks of the UN Human Rights Council

“…Сложную сеть международной организации отличает именно неформальная иерархия, так как формально участники сети обладают одинаковым статусом и участвуют в коммуникации [Alter, Raustiala, 2018;Hafner-Burton, Kahler, Montgomery, 2009]. Сложная сеть взаимозависима с окружающей средой; так, переговоры между Соединенным Королевством и Евросоюзом по брекзиту зависели от всего спектра взаимосвязей между странами-членами НАТО, с иными неправительственными участниками, оценкой будущего состояния взаимосвязей [Hollway, 2020]. Сложную сеть международных организаций следует тогда определить как совокупность государств-членов международной организации, взаимодействующих с ними государств и организаций, устойчиво взаимосвязанных определенной тематической повесткой и находящихся в определенной иерархии.…”