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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Vérène Niyomana
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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2026.02.002
University of Burundi, Bujumbura, Burundi
This article develops and tests the concept of the “credibility-governance dilemma” to explain how geopolitical rivalry systematically undermines the authority of international organisations (IOs). Moving beyond traditional narratives of institutional decline, it introduces a specific causal mechanism—the politicisation-credibility feedback loop—by which states weaponise IOs’ technical procedures, compelling them to choose between preserving procedural integrity and responding to political demands. Either option erodes the IO’s epistemic authority, leading to institutional bypass and fragmentation. Through structured, focused comparisons and qualitative process-tracing of two key cases—the paralysis of the WTO (World Trade Organization)’s Appellate Body (AB) (2017-2022) and the politicisation of the WHO (World Health Organization)’s COVID-19 origin investigation (2020-2021)—this article demonstrates how great power contestation (mainly US-China) turns technical domains into arenas of geopolitical conflict. Findings show that strategic procedural contestation initiates a self-reinforcing cycle: Reduced credibility encourages member states to pursue “politically safer” minilateral alternatives, further diminishing the relevance and resources of the universal IO. The article concludes that the durability of technical IOs in the 21st century depends more on their perceived impartiality than on their legal frameworks, and that the credibility-governance dilemma offers a general mechanism for institutional decline in an age of renewed great-power competition.
international organisations, credibility, geopolitical rivalry, WTO, WHO, mini-lateralism
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