Governance, Trust, and Engagement in Past and Present

This collaborative research will study how organizations strengthen governance. It will trace the efforts of organizations that have sought to resolve international crises from the end of World War I to contemporary times. The research will draw on history, international relations, sociology, and political science to study the dynamics of organizations to understand how institutions sustain governance and trust around the world. It will study how domestic politics have shaped nations’ attitudes toward these bodies. The project will also study how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have tried to use these organizations to achieve their objectives. The results of this research will provide inputs into policies regarding international organizations to make governance work better for future generations. The interdisciplinary project team will pursue two lines of inquiry. Specifically, it will examine campaigns that have sought to create, reform, transform, or abolish international organizations. This will highlight the potentials and shortfalls of organizations. It will also investigate attempts of NGOs to enlist the support of international bodies in response to obstacles they encounter domestically. These findings will draw on the past using historical methodologies to strengthen understanding of how future cooperation can be reimagined and will advance fundamental science in sociology and political science. The team will produce a co-authored monograph and engage stakeholders through papers and workshops. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.