Friends rather than foes? Consequences of institutional overlap as collaborative co-evolution - A comparative case study of the World Bank and AIIB, the IEA and IRENA

Previous studies have looked at how institutional overlap can lead to competition amongst international organizations. In fact, the conventional wisdom in the IR literature proposes that the expansion in scope and occupation of overlapping spaces within the same policy domain result in IO rivalries. These rivalries may manifest through competition for resources, as well as norm and policy contestation. Previous studies have also examined the drivers behind institutional overlap, often pinpointing them on strategic rivalries between powerful states and like-minded coalitions of states. Less researched in the literature are the factors and the processes which push existing and new IOs to adapt and co-evolve together, sometimes forming collaborative synergetic relations rather than engaging exclusively in rivalrous behavior. Furthermore, little is known of the variation in that process across different policy areas and in different types of IOs (e.g., task-specific vs general purpose, universal vs regional, etc.). This paper contributes to the literature through a comparative case study of the co-evolution of two pairs of IOs from different policy areas, namely the World Bank and the Asia Infrastructure and Investment Bank in the policy area of multilateral development, and the International Energy Agency and the International Renewable Energy Agency in the policy area of energy. By tracing the co-evolution in the relations between the incumbent and entrant organizations under study, this paper showcases how under some conditions institutional overlap can lead to synergetic relations that result in legitimation through norm diffusion, design and policy isomorphism, and collaborative partnerships rather than norm contestation, policy rivalry, and competition for resources. The analysis relies mainly on rich original data from over 35 semi-structured and focused interviews with WB, AIIB, IEA, IRENA, and state officials.