21st Century International Organizations: Disruption and Resilience

Marked by pandemics, climate change, regional wars, technological advances, large-scale migration, and major power competition, the global polycrisis is disrupting the effective operation and legitimacy of international organizations (IOs). While some IOs face difficulties in sustaining multilateral cooperation, others demonstrate remarkable resilience. Against this background, this section aims to examine the responses, operations, and effects of IOs, thus continuing a well-established section that features at ECPR General Conferences since 2016. The panels focus on different themes (e.g., existential threats and institutional resilience), actors and regions (e.g., UN, EU, and the Global South), and challenges (e.g., far-right and autocracy), addressing cross-cutting issues and specific policy areas at global, regional, national, and functional levels. They also encompass theoretical and methodological diversity and will encourage paper submissions from scholars across disciplines that study IOs or multilateralism.