My research asks how large-scale organisations can be aligned with their mandates when they depend on diverse individual agents to act on their behalf. Organisations do not make decisions themselves: their priorities and policies emerge from the choices of individuals with different expertise, backgrounds, identities, and incentives. I study when these differences matter, and when diversity among individual agents improves—or distorts—an organisation’s ability to pursue its collective goals.
I examine this puzzle primarily in international organisations and global governance. My work focuses particularly on international financial institutions and global development, where I study how differences among staff and experts shape organisational priorities, policy design, and implementation. I also study the governance of large-scale and existential risks, building on work on pandemics and antimicrobial resistance and, increasingly, I am interested in how these questions extend to artificial intelligence.
