Description
Amidst increasing institutional complexity, international organizations (IOs) are under pressure to maintain their legitimacy or else risk different types of disintegration, replacement, or even ‘death.’ Building on a growing body of work that explores the particular organizational features or legitimation strategies that explain IO survival, we theorize how IO ‘public events’ operate as a tool through which IOs can enact their power in a crowded institutional landscape. We argue that such public events – highly publicized gatherings of state representatives, IO staff, and civil society organizations that foster dialogue rather than negotiated cooperation – serve two key political purposes for IOs: (1) establishing ownership over existing or new issues in global governance; and (2) shaping the global agenda on a specific issue. We empirically study the development of rival public events by the United Nations Trade and Development (UNTAD) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to govern the “digital development” space, drawing on participant observation at both events and interviews with officials involved with public event planning across IOs. By bringing research on event management together with scholarship on IOs, we aim to sharpen our understanding of the performance of power by IOs in complex institutional environments.
