Non-Liberal States and Global Governance

Full title

How are Autocracies and Hybrid Regimes Re-Shaping International Organizations? 

Project description

Our project explores the governance challenges arising from a transformation in the roles, positions and practices adopted by non-liberal states in International Organizations (IOs). After decades in which autocracies were marginalised in most IOs, the rise of China, Russia’s increasingly autocratic turn, and the rising importance of powers such as hybrid regimes have produced a new reality in which various non-liberal states are increasingly present and assertive in IOs. The strategies, tools and narratives that they employ may involve contestation of specific international norms, creation of new norms, new power alliances, or pursuit of specific geopolitical goals.

The new assertiveness of non-liberal states is likely to affect IOs’ functioning and governance, including the sense of purpose shared by member states, and the policy agendas, informal alliances and decision-making styles that prevail within these organizations. Investigating these positions, roles and strategies and their possible effects on the functioning of IOs is part of a potentially far-reaching research agenda. 

This seed grant enables us to bring together selected scholars for a 2-day workshop to be held at Leiden University’s the Hague Campus in late 2023 or early 2024. Each participant will present a working paper of relevance to the project’s scope and brainstorm with the group on the most promising directions for future research. As key workshop output, we aim to publish the participants’ contributions in a special issue for a leading academic journal in the field.