Tana Johnson’s research interests include international institutions, international organizations, and energy/environmental policy. Her work appears in International Organization, Journal of Politics, Review of International Organizations, and other venues. Johnson’s book Organizational Progeny: Why Governments are Losing Control over the Proliferating Structures of Global Governance (Oxford University Press 2014, 2017) shows that in a variety of policy areas, global governance structures are getting harder for national governments to control — not only because the quantity and staffing of international organizations has mushroomed, but also because the people working in these organizations try to insulate any new organizations against governments’ interference.
Organizational Progeny won the International Studies Association’s 2015 Chadwick F. Alger Prize for best book on international organization and multilateralism. Johnson has received research fellowships from the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University, and from the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University. She serves as a faculty advisor and instructor for Duke’s Program on Global Policy and Governance, which places graduate students in internships in international governmental and non-governmental organizations in Geneva, Switzerland. She also has been an energy policy fellow through the Global Governance Futures program, which consists of academics and practitioners from Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, and the U.S.