STANDARD SETTING AND INTERNATIONAL PEER REVIEW: The OECD as a Transnational Policy Actor

The OECD, established in 1961 and now consisting of thirty-six member states, has unique features as an intergovernmental and transnational actor because it is neither a lending nor a treaty organization. It relies primarily on knowledge production, standard-setting, and monitoring techniques, such as comparative data, and most prominently, peer review. The chapter begins with a sketch of the organization’s highly intricate structure of committees, centres, boards, forums, working groups, and networks (over 250 such specialized bodies), and the supporting secretariat of directorates. Complementing this complex internal structure is an equally complex array of global engagements with other international actors through partnerships, forums, and networks. The OECD’s influence arises from its unmatched capacity to produce credible knowledge, define key policy concepts, and promote standards (through a variety of different types of international decisions, conventions, and recommendations). Its signature compliance and monitoring technique is peer review.