POLCON tackles the institutional power struggles within global governance, examining if and how the creation of new international institutions challenge established ones across different policy areas, and how this dynamic reshapes international cooperation in a tense geopolitical climate.
In an ever-changing world, the way states coordinate and govern political issues on the international stage has undergone profound transformations. Driven by geopolitical shifts since the end of the Cold War, new intergovernmental arrangements have emerged, often overlapping or complementing the functions of pre-existing international institutions. These arrangements form what we call “regime complexes”—arrays of institutions governing specific issue areas.
Within these regime complexes, states face a multitude of institutional alternatives, each vying for authority. As a consequence of this growing density of competing institutions, many once-central and uncontested legacy organizations now find themselves in direct competition with alternative multilateral arrangements. These newcomers enter the scene with their own intentions, strategies, and goals and they reflect the diverse political ambitions and goals of their founding states.
The POLCON project, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), seeks to unravel the dynamics of these institutional power struggles within global governance. Here are key questions we aim to answer:
Cooperation or Competition? What are the incentives to cooperate from the perspective of legacy institutions and their newly created contenders? What motivates them to share or openly compete for resources and members? What factors influence their choices?
Strategies of Contender Institutions: What organizational strategies do newly created International Organizations (IOs) adopt to gain a foothold in their respective regime complexes? How do these strategies vary across different policy areas and evolve over time?
Political and Normative Consequences: How does the creation of new international institutions affect the political processes within pre-existing regime complexes, how do they change the behaviour of states? What are the consequences for the normative foundations of international cooperation across different issue areas?
Recent Project-Related Publications
2024 "Insuring the Weak: The Institutional Power Equilibrium in International Organizations" International Studies Quarterly (ISQ) (with Tim Heinkelmann-Wild & Martijn Huysmans). Available open access at: https://academic.oup.com/isq/article/69/1/sqae146/7921925
2024 "How negative institutional power moderates contestation: Explaining dissatisfied powers’ strategies towards international institutions" The Review of International Organizations (RIO) (with Tim Heinkelmann-Wild & Andreas Kruck). Available open access at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11558-024-09574-z
2024 "Navigating Regime Complexes in Turbulent Times - The EU’s Interaction with Other International Organizations in Crises" German Political Science Quarterly (PVS) (with Sandra Bandemer, Berthold Rittberger, and Moritz Weiss). Available open access at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11615-024-00572-9.
2024 "The Contender’s Momentum? COVID-19 and IO relations in the regime complex of financial assistance. Chinese Journal of International Politics (CJIP) (with Felix Biermann). Available at: Contender’s Momentum? COVID-19 and IO Relations in the Regime Complex of Financial Assistance | The Chinese Journal of International Politics | Oxford Academic (oup.com)
2023 "The Institutional Topology of International Regime Complexes - Mapping Inter-Institutional Structures in Global Governance" Oxford University Press (OUP). Available at: https://academic.oup.com/book/55135
2023 "Eine Krise liberaler Hegemonie: Die Trump-Administration und die Kontestation der Liberalen Internationalen Ordnung." In: Böller, Florian/Werner, Welf (eds.): Hegemonialer Wandel Globaler Wirtschafts- und Sicherheitsordnungen in der Ära Trump. J.B. Metzler Cham. Available at: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-35003-0_4 (with Tim Heinkelmann-Wild & Andreas Kruck)
2022 "Good(s) for Everyone? Policy Area Competition and Institutional Topologies in the Regime Complexes of Tax Avoidance and Intellectual Property." Journal of International Relations and Development (JIRD). Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41268-022-00267-x
2022 "Disentangling Institutional Contestation by Established Powers: Types of Contestation Frames and Varying Opportunities for the Re-Legitimation of International Institutions." Online First at Global Constitutionalism (GlobCon) (with Andreas Kruck, Tim Heinkelmann- Wild & Raphaela Hobbach). Open Access: http://ow.ly/TvGw50Ilqxz
benjamin.dassler@gsi.uni-muenchen.de
LMU Munich
Geschwister-Scholl Institute for Political Schience
Oettingenstraße 67
80538 Munich