Strategic Treaty Management Practice and Implications

While little recognized in international law scholarship, multilateral treaties in diverse fields have begun to apply strategic management techniques to make them more effective and responsive. This examination of those practices and their interplay with associated international organizations considers the application of strategic management across treaties' planning, financing, implementation, and evaluation activities. The study leads to a new appreciation of the intricacies of multilateral treaty activities and a better understanding of their operations within complex webs of networked international institutions. In considering different approaches to steering treaties through this dispersed global governance landscape, Thomas F. McInerney draws on current strategic management literature to explore the utility of nonlinear, emergent models of strategy and gain insights from strategy as practice research. While recognizing strategic management's potential value in facilitating more flexible applications of multilateral agreements, he also emphasizes the need to maintain their normativity as international legal obligations.

1. Introduction; 2. Strategies for advancing multilateral treaties; 3. Strategic approaches to national implementation; 4. Financing multilateral treaties; 5. Synergies and partnerships; 6. Science, technology, and data; 7. Performance management; 8. Conclusion; Annex A. Table of treaty strategies; Annex B. Interviews conducted.

Thomas F. McInerney is Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Loyola University of Chicago School of Law. He counsels multilateral organizations, treaty secretariats, international NGOs and governments on treaty management, international law and development. He is the founder of the Treaty Effectiveness Initiative, which provides research, publications, training and policy advice to improve the performance of multilateral treaties and international organizations. He is also a Visiting Fellow with the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet) at Australian National University. His writing and speeches concern international law, global governance, regulation and international development.