International Governmental Organizations In a Period of Turmoil for Globalization

Globalization has entered a new phase as cross-border flows remain at record highs, but these flows are increasingly sorted along geopolitical lines and cross-national agreements and exchanges are increasingly challenged in the public arena. International governmental organizations (IGOs) sit at the centre of this tension, occupying a threefold position. (1) They are primary targets of sovereigntist, populist, and nationalist projects that frame them as external constraints on national self-determination. (2) At the same time, they remain consequential, continuing to shape economic, cultural, and political life within and between nations and serving as arenas in which rival geopolitical blocs compete for influence. (3) And yet parts of their authority are under threat quietly through selective compliance and the slow withdrawal of the public legitimacy on which they ultimately depend. All of this unfolds against a backdrop of geopolitical fragmentation and contested multilateralism, yet unprecedented global connection.

This session welcomes contributions that focus on IGOs in a period when globalization is increasingly challenged and unstable. Rather than uniformly retreating, IGOs are reconfiguring: some lose authority while others gain salience, and their public reception varies sharply by organization, by issue, and by national context. Many IGOs remain having substantial influence in most nations and in cross-national relations at large. The session gathers studies on public attitudes towards these organizations, on their activities and goals, and on the consequences of their policies and programs, bringing together perspectives from across the globe to map their shifting role in this new phase of globalization.