As ad hoc coalitions (AHCs) proliferate, particularly on the African continent, two questions crystallize. First, what consequences do they bring about for the existing institutional security landscape? And second, how can the trend of AHCs operating alongside, instead of inside, international organizations be captured and explored conceptually?

To answer these questions, Malte Brosig and John Karlsrud have in a new article in International Affairs examined the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) fighting Boko Haram and its changing relationship to the African Union. Through a case-study and a review of policy and academic literature, the article launches the concept of deinstitutionalization and how it can be characterized.

In sum, the authors unwraps the processes of deinstitutionalization and identifies three forms of rationales for this process: lack of problem-solving capacity, limited adaptability and path dependency. 

In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage, NUPI Research Professor Ole Jacob Sending sits down with the two authors to dig into the article and its findings.

Malte Brosig is a Professor at University of the Witwatersrand. John Karlsrud is a Research Professor at NUPI.