Professionalization as an Alternative Explanation

Abstract

Abstract To weigh the evidence for professionalization as an alternative explanation, the chapter revisits the five countries of the case study chapters—China, India, Brazil, Norway, and Russia—taking note of events conducive to NOC capacity-building and assessing their impact. While the chapter finds capacity-building to be an essential piece of the puzzle, it argues that it is no substitute for a domestic structural explanation because capacitybuilding itself is contingent on well-functioning governance mechanisms. Early efforts at professionalization, to varying degrees, helped governments equip their NOCs with the managerial and financial capacity to respond when the outward investment push came during the late 1990s. However, the success of NOC capacity build-up was in part contingent on bureaucratic capacity—the presence of governance institutions that could help ensure that NOCs are given the autonomy to achieve efficiency gains and the oversight to avoid pursuing political or economic interests that contradict the national interest.