The Life Cycles of Global Governance

How Institutions Emerge, Evolve, and Endure

Edited by Julia Gray

Subjects: Political Science, International Relations
Ebook : 9780472906352, 376 pages, 17 figures, 6 tables, 6 x 9, March 2027
Paperback : 9780472058518, 376 pages, 17 figures, 6 tables, 6 x 9, March 2027
Hardcover : 9780472078516, 376 pages, 17 figures, 6 tables, 6 x 9, March 2027
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.14612742
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Table of Contents

Offering a new lens on global governance

Table of contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Figures and Tables

1) Introduction: The Life Cycle of International Cooperation 

Julia Gray

2) False Starts: Why Failure Matters for Research on IOs 

Charles Roger

3) The Short Life and Long Afterlives of the Panama Congress 

Joshua Simon

4) National Votes with International Consequences: Managing Voter-Based Challenges to International Institutions 

Stefanie Walter

5) Member State Exit in the Life Cycle of IOs 

Inken von Borzyskowski and Felicity Vabulas

6) The Lifecycle of International Courts: Rise and Demise of the Appellate Body           

Jeffrey Kucik, Lauren Peritz, and Sergio Puig

7) Coming Back To Life: Economists at the World Bank     

Mirek Tobiáš Hošman

8) The Life Cycle of the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit

Eugénia C. Heldt

9) Bringing States Back In: A Leadership Perspective on IO Life Cycles

Tim Heinkelmann-Wild

10) Financial Innovations and International Organizations: How Goldman-Sachs Killed International Commodity Organizations 

Loriana Crasnic

11) The Death of Major International Organizations: Causes and Consequences

Hylke Dijkstra and Maria J. Debre

12) The Afterlife of the League of Nations    

Patrick Cottrell

13) Election Observation Under Pressure: The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the “New Cold War” 

Daniela Donno

14) The Evolving Normative Foundations of International Organizations: Navigating Liberal, Westphalian, and Social Justice Principles Across Institutional Lifecycles

Anja Jetschke, Sören Münch, and Dennis Quint

15) The Life Cycle of Informal International Organizations: The FATF's Increased Institutionalization Over Time 

Isabel Rodriguez-Toribio

16) The OECD’s Development Assistance Committee in a Changing Foreign Aid Regime

Martin C. Steinwand  

17) When RIOs Grow Up: Adaptation Through Mandate Change?

Diana Panke & Sören Stapel 

18) Regenerative Progress in International Cooperation Theory

Orfeo Fioretos

19) Conclusion: Rethinking Cooperation Through Institutional Life Cycles 

Julia Gray

References

Description

International organizations influence nearly every aspect of global life—from aid and finance to law, security, and development. At a moment when the liberal international order is widely described as being in decline, this volume offers a corrective. International organizations do not simply rise and fall; they are always in motion—adapting, fragmenting, or being repurposed in response to shifting conditions. A life-cycle perspective reveals that what appears as decline may instead reflect transformation. Although they are often treated as fixed landmarks of global politics, institutions rarely follow a linear path from creation to maturity. This interdisciplinary edited volume brings together scholars from law, political science, sociology, and international relations to reveal the life cycles of these institutions: their false starts, early challenges, periods of drift, moments of revitalization, and even their afterlives.

Spanning cases from the 19th century to the present and covering diverse issue areas, the book offers a fresh perspective on why some organizations adapt while others stagnate or disappear. The volume shows how shifting political pressures, bureaucratic agency, and global shocks shape the fortunes of organizations from the UN, WTO, and World Bank to regional bodies and informal networks. By tracing these trajectories across disciplines and domains, The Life Cycles of Global Governance provides an accessible, richly textured account of how global cooperation actually unfolds—and why understanding institutional change is essential in today’s shifting international order.

Julia Gray is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

“The Life Cycles of Global Governance offers the definitive statement of a powerful new concept —one that deserves a place in the IR canon alongside legalization, rational design, and regime complexity as key extensions of the institutionalist research program. Essential reading for students of global governance.”

- Mark A. Pollack, Temple University

“The Life Cycles of Global Governance adds new perspectives on the many varied sources of IO resilience and adaptability and focuses attention on variation in adaptive capacities both within and across international organizations.”

- Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, University of Cambridge
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