Informal Intergovernmental Organizations (IIGOs).

The recent renaissance in the theoretical analysis of intergovernmental organizations has focused on formal IGOs-legalized interstate arrangements coordinated through permanent secretariats with varying degrees of autonomy. But many intergovernmental organizations are informal in nature-they are subject to no formal treaty and/or have no permanent secretariat. Important examples include the various G-groups that are the locus of much high-level interaction among states. What does the broader set of informal intergovernmental organizations (IIGO) look like? How can they best be conceptualized in relation to the full spectrum of international institutions? Why would states choose to create and work through an IIGO rather than a formal IGO? We build on the analysis of soft law, informal agreements, and informal governance to understand why IIGOs are important in their own right as more than just stepping stones to more formal organizations-although we are also interested in that possibility. IIGOs act as complements for formal IGOs when states face high uncertainty surrounding other states' preferences and the state of the world; IIGOs offer a low risk forum for creating focal point solutions that can be implemented through coordinated state action or through formal entities. IIGOs act as substitutes for formal IGOs when states need increased flexibility, speed, ambiguity or weaker enforcement. We locate IIGOs along the spectrum of intergovernmental arrangements with varying degrees of formality and we supplement this theoretical analysis with an empirical analysis that develops a comprehensive list of informal intergovernmental organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]