International Cooperation in Response to AIDS

This study explores the role of interorganizational relations and social networks in facilitating - or, conversely, frustrating - co-operation in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It begins with an historical overview of AIDS as it relates to transnational policy processes and a critical review of the limiations of orthodox international relations approaches for describing and explaining such international co-operation. The book goes on to examine crucial aspects of the co-operation process, including politics of agenda-setting: when, how and why did organizational players and individual leaders come to pay serious attention to the AIDS issue at the international level? The evolving structure and process of interorganizational relations are analyzed with particular focus on mapping social networks among transnational actors and identifying associated social roles and positions. In this context, processes of both formal and informal coordination are investigated, as are network mobilization and network sustainability. Finally, the book focuses on leadership in international co-operation and explores the micro and macro foundations of leadership as it relates to the followership.