The national state, international organizations and globalization are crucial elements in the discussions on educational policy. This work looks into the mechanics of reciprocal influence exertion in educational policy-making. The neoinstitutionalist isomorphism theory and the externalization thesis offer significant theoretical insights into the influence of international organizations on state education systems. While the majority of works in this field presuppose the challenges to education which spring from this process to be real and pre-exist the discursive process, the study steps back in the debate and takes closer look at its constellations. For this purpose the OECD has been selected as a topical example of the new quality of educational work beyond the level of the nation-state.