Dr Jochen Prantl just published his book, The UN Security Council and Informal Groups of States: Complementing or Competing for Governance? (Oxford University Press). This book provides the first comparative treatment of the dynamics between informal groups of states and the UN Security Council in the resolution of conflict. It illustrates how the decentralization of tasks to informal groups allows the achievement of policy goals that would be unattainable in the centralized setting of formal international organizations. In effect, informal institutions are agents of incremental change.
Dr Jochen Prantl is a Research Fellow in International Relations and Research Fellow of Nuffield College. Some additional recent publications include, Informal Groups of States and the UN Security Council, International Organization 59:3 (2005) and The Consolidation of Peace in Africa, co-authored with Jane Boulden, S. Neil MacFarlane and David Williams, (Oxford: Centre for International Studies, 2005).
