Introduction

Are international organisations (IOs) back in vogue? While most IOs were treated badly for most of the cold war period, they have recently attracted more attention, raising expectations in many policy areas in international law and global politics. Some organisations, in particular the World Trade Organization (WTO) clearly moved centre stage during the Uruguay Round (1986–94). Ever since then, increasing pressures emanating from globalisation processes have steadily improved the prospects for IOs to be chosen to manage and coordinate emerging challenges. Growing needs to address global concerns call for enhanced cooperation, if not advanced integration of policy areas at the international level. The existing constitutional framework of IOs, essentially shaped after the Second World War, for want of a better alternative, has to serve as the backbone for taking additional steps in identifying and shaping public goods, rights and obligations of states and private actors. In the wake of financial crises, the challenges of ongoing climate change and new pandemic threats, calls for delegating more tasks to IOs have intensified. Yet most of the unfolding potential is far from being utilised. International cooperation still hinges on the reluctance of key actors to delegate sufficient authority to the supranational level and to address appropriate structures and processes of decision-making commensurate with the tasks ahead. Traditional perceptions of sovereignty of the nation state loom large.