This roundtable historicizes ongoing debates about the legitimacy and limitations of international organizations. In doing so, it addresses questions of high contemporary relevance, given the extent to which political leaders in different countries are questioning the functioning and purpose of international organizations. However, rather than approaching this subject from the vantage point of national governments or diplomats, the roundtable explores how national and global publics related to specific international institutions. It thus draws attention to the hopes, ambitions and frustrations that various groups associated with the prospect of new (or revised) forms of global or regional governance. In this context, it also notes how mistrust vis-à-vis international bodies was a significant political factor.

In addressing different civil society responses to the international system, the roundtable shares preliminary findings from “Global Governance, Trust and Democratic Engagement in Past and Present” (GLO), a collaborative research project that is being supported by funding councils from four countries, operating within the framework of the Trans-Atlantic Platform for the Social Sciences and Humanities. All roundtable participants are members of the GLO team, and they will each focus on particular institutions with actors from civil society in different countries: Carolyn Biltoft (Geneva Graduate Institute) will focus on the League of Nations; Gordon Barrett (Northumbria) on UNESCO; Daniel Gorman (Waterloo) on the wider UN system; and Anne-Isabelle Richard (Leiden) on the Council of Europe. The discussion will be chaired by Daniel Laqua, the Principal Investigator of GLO.

As a whole, the roundtable acknowledges the waxing and waning of popular support for international organizations and cooperative mechanisms, and how such attitudes were not only informed by, but also reflected back upon, developments at national and regional levels.