The volume edited by Deloffre and Quack introduces some significant novelties in the scholarly debates on NGOs, in particular, on their internal structure and relations with states and donors. The dominant scholarship, in fact, has mainly conceived and portrayed NGOs as stable and purposive organizations, explaining their performance primarily through institutional constraints, resource dependencies, and/or strategic calculations. In this book, the editors propose a rather different perspective, offering a relational ontology in which NGOs are constituted through dynamic patterns of interaction, which permeate their nature and essence. They term this NGOing.
This conceptual move is more than a terminological process. It redirects the analytical focus from what NGOs are to what they do relationally: how they create, sustain, and transform networks; how they split, merge, compete, or disengage; and how they build legitimacy and power through iterative engagement with a variety of actors, most notably states and intergovernmental organizations, but also companies and corporations, and even with other NGOs.
The volume thus situates itself squarely against dichotomous framings of NGO interaction, simply in terms of cooperation versus competition, and rather argues for a more differentiated typology of relational forms.
The book is divided into three parts, corresponding to the main dimensions that are analysed. The first deals with social ties, as observable connections between NGOs, as a result of the fact that they are not static, but rather very dynamic and grounded on a set of interactions. In the second part, configurations are used as a key element for understanding how relational patterns can be implemented and institutionalized. Third, sites of interaction are defined as relational settings produced by a mix of social ties and configurations. A group of leading scholars in the field expands on the common framework, offering theoretical reflections and empirical studies that cover a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives. Following such interdisciplinary ambition and by integrating International Relations with organizational sociology, the editors challenge methodological actor-centric models and approaches that dominate parts of the literature on NGOs.
One of the central theoretical contributions is its ninefold typology of NGO interactions, introduced in the first chapter, which reportedly stresses different modes such as brokering, cooperating, merging, meta-organizing, divorcing, and disregarding. Far from being merely descriptive, this taxonomy can be useful to unpack the diversity of relational practices that shape global governance outcomes. Interactions are not stages but contingent relational strategies. NGOs may oscillate between cooperative and competitive stances, merge into super-networks, or disengage strategically depending on issue area, political opportunity structures, or normative alignment.
By embedding these forms within a relational power framework, the book conceptualizes power not solely as resource control or agenda-setting capacity, but as emergent from patterned interactions. Power is co-produced and distributed across networks rather than possessed.
The editors advance a tripartite account of relational power that connects micro-level interactions to macro-level governance effects. NGOs are depicted as living organizations, able to adapt to different conditions, improvise practices, and reshape political space through relational innovation.
Case studies and empirical analyses—especially in the second part—illustrate these dynamics across very sensitive policy fields, such as environmental negotiation, humanitarian action, and counterterrorism. Given the nature of such policies, NGOs have experimented with a series of tools and practices that have brought them to merge in organizational forms, such as umbrella associations and networks. This solution has often helped organizations to maximize their resources, increase their influence, and amplify their impact, although this has not been without conflict and ideological friction. The relational lens remains under-theorized in International Relations scholarship, yet it is central to understanding contemporary NGO ecosystems and their influence, which often derives more from network positioning and relational brokerage than from individual organizational capacity.
The sensitivity of the topic and the changing nature of NGOs also offer opportunities to build on the findings of the book and expand on some points. For instance, the book highlights relational dynamism, yet is less explicit about normative evaluation. Analyses that stress how certain relational forms enhance accountability or democratic inclusion more than others could be extremely helpful in involving more perspectives. Furthermore, the applicability of the framework across regions and political regimes warrants further scrutiny. NGOs operating in authoritarian contexts may face relational constraints that differ from those in liberal democracies. Case studies from different regions could demonstrate how NGOs interact with various contexts and engage with local stakeholders.
Broadly speaking, the book shifts the focus away from NGOs as fixed entities and toward the iterative, relational practices through which they build legitimacy and exercise influence within complex networks. This approach places NGOs within fluid governance ecologies rather than distinct institutional spheres. The relational approach rethinks the role of civil society in global governance. It also invites us to reconsider democratic legitimacy. If NGOs are relationally constituted, then legitimacy itself may be relationally produced rather than normatively assumed.
A Relational Approach to NGOs in Global Politics is a conceptually sophisticated and empirically rich contribution to the field of global governance. It offers scholars both a theoretical toolkit and an invitation to reconsider agency, power, and legitimacy as emergent properties of relational systems. Although challenges remain regarding operationalisation and normative clarity, this book establishes a new research agenda that will undoubtedly influence NGO studies for years to come.
