Unfolding cooperation processes: ideational factors in inter-organizational peacebuilding among the UN, the AU and the EU in Somalia

International and regional organizations have been significantly expanding their role in the domain of peacebuilding and their interdependence has been particularly on the rise in the past decade. Recently, scholarly attention has increasingly been focusing on expanding our understanding of inter-organizational relations in several domains, but overarching theories that can explain such complex phenomenon are still missing. Building on existing theoretical approaches on inter-organizational relations, security governance, interregionalism and regime complexity, this work aims at investigating the existing relations among international and regional organizations in the field of peacebuilding with a view at unfolding the rationales and paths that lead to variation in the levels of cooperation. In particular, this study contributes to the existing literature by focusing on the role of ideational factors in explaining cooperation outcomes and it advances trust as an explanatory variable in understanding variance in cooperation levels. Building on IR approaches and conceptual underpinnings from management studies, this work conceptualizes cooperation as a process in which agency and structure are mutually constitutive and it adopts a broad definition of peacebuilding that includes actions adopted in support of peace operationalized in three policy domains: security, development and governance. Furthermore, it advances a conceptualization of trust that allows for differentiating between strategic trust and relational trust as explanations of different features of cooperation phenomena. The research has been designed as an in-depth qualitative research based on the analysis of a case – the cooperation among the UN, the EU and the AU in Somalia – to investigate the complex relations that characterize organizations’ involvement in peacebuilding. Process tracing has been judged as the most suited method to inductively explore the complexity of the phenomenon without the risk of neglecting significant potential explanations or scope conditions. Empirical material has been collected through desk review of organizations’ doctrinal documents, elite interviews conducted in different locations and direct observation through the participation to roundtables and conferences with organizations’ officials. The dissertation starts with a first chapter that provides the theoretical, conceptual and methodological backbone of the study including case and method selection. The second chapter analyses each of the organizations’ underpinnings in peacebuilding and examines the respective ideational factors comparatively. Thirdly, it investigates cooperation among the organizations through formal and informal links providing actor mapping and analysis of mutual representations. The fourth chapter focuses on the case of Somalia to provide a detailed account of existing interactions within context and to add the field level to the analysis. Finally, the last chapter provides the conclusions by discussing the initial hypotheses and hypothesized causal mechanism, delineating the study contribution to existing knowledge and pinpointing avenues for further research.