How States Recognize International Organizations: Evidence from UN General Debates, 1946–2024

How much remains of the “liberal international order”? We address this question by examining the public recognition international organizations (IOs) receive from their main constituents—states. International Relations scholarship has long emphasized IOs’ diverse policy functions, ranging from facilitating intergovernmental negotiations to exercising genuine authority in setting standards, compliance monitoring, and direct implementation. Yet to what extent have states publicly recognized these functions over time, and how have they attributed them to different components of IOs—such as intergovernmental bodies, expert groups, or secretariats? To what extent has states' appraisal (or deference) been replaced by critique (or defiance)? And how far can observed changes be explained by ideological shifts in member states' domestic politics, once controlling for alternative factors such as a changing institutional landscape or shifting power differentials? The paper investigates these questions through a comprehensive content analysis of UN General Debates from 1946 to 2024, combining manual and automated text analysis. By tracing how states publicly articulate IOs' role, the study contributes to understanding the transformation and resilience of rule-based governance in contemporary world politics.