International organisations are being challenged from two sides. Weak and rising states are demanding more influence, while declining Western powers turn away from institutions they helped to create. Benjamin Daßler, Tim Heinkelmann-Wild, and Martijn Huysmans argue that institutional rules can help balance power relations and stabilise international cooperation in times of power shifts

International organisations (IOs) such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the World Health Organization (WHO) often appear to be chess pieces in a grand geopolitical game, manipulated by their most powerful members. It is tempting to conclude that IOs are puppets of great powers, while weaker states are left voiceless.

Our research challenges this view and uncovers how IOs balance the scales. When major IOs were established after the Second World War, their founders implemented legal safeguards into their contracts. In so doing, they created an institutional power equilibrium that balanced the interests of powerful and weaker states. But power is now shifting, and IOs must reform to reflect new realities.