This essay argues that the relationship of strategic interdependence between local NGOs and foreign donors is inherently asymmetrical and has important organizational and managerial consequences for NGOs in terms of their identity, activities and reporting; autonomy, legitimacy and accountability; and, in that it further perpetuates global/local and North/South asymmetries.

The European security regime cannot serve as a model for East Asia, as this region is conditioned by markedly different institutional, political, economic, and cultural factors that are manifest in strong preferences for informal, incremental and bilateral frameworks based upon the principles of non-interference, consensus-building, power-balancing and bandwagoning. Nevertheless, the OSCE pillar of the European security regime may be a more appropriate model for Africa.

This essay asserts that although NGO participation appears to remain a privilege mediated and granted by states, NGO engagement, ‘self association’, and ‘political will formation’ is central in revealing how power must now be understood in the global order – that is to say that political power “operates through rather than on civil society”.