In recent decades, international organisations (IOs) and other global institutions have been increasingly challenged and scrutinised, and ongoing power and paradigm shifts away from liberalism and universal multilateralism continue to intensify these challenges (Stephen 2017). At the same time, many international problems (from climate to health, migration, trade, and digitalisation) require cooperation among states. This raises the question of how global governance can be transformed to make it more effective, robust, and democratic in a contested world in transition. This research question constitutes the core of the ENSURED project (Choi et al. 2024), which includes the ENSURED Expert Survey, the results of which we present in this report. The survey solicited the insights of academic experts on IOs around the globe. Between August 26, 2025 and September 22, 2025, we surveyed 763 experts based in 48 countries. The survey has a high response rate at 21.6 percent, which indicates the level of expert interest in the challenges IOs are currently facing.
This report presents the background and technical details of the survey, as well as answers to the following questions:
- How do experts score various IOs in terms of their effectiveness, robustness, and democratic credentials?
- Which challenges do experts expect IOs to be faced with in the near future?
- Which institutional qualities – in terms of effectiveness, robustness, and democracy– do experts perceive as most essential in enabling IOs to continue carrying out their mandate when facing such challenges?
This report provides new comparative evidence to a field in which such data is rare and case studies still dominate. According to experts, IOs vary significantly in terms of their effectiveness, robustness, and democratic quality. Of the 22 IOs rated by at least nine experts, the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe (CoE) score among the highest for all three qualities overall. Apart from this pattern, however, all three institutional qualities vary greatly across IOs. There is also variation within IOs when we look at the specific indicators used to measure these qualities. The analyses thus show that while many IOs may aspire to combine high levels of effectiveness, robustness, and democracy, this rarely occurs in practice.
While many IOs may aspire to combine high levels of effectiveness, robustness, and democracy, this rarely occurs in practice.
With respect to the challenges IOs are likely to face in the near future, the experts anticipate that member-state withdrawal is much less likely in general-purpose IOs than in task-specific IOs. Increased policy complexity is expected to be a challenge for all the IOs included in our survey. A resource crisis is most apparent at the United Nations (UN), but experts deemed funding problems quite likely for all other IOs as well (the EU was the only exception). Gridlock is particularly important at the UN and the World Trade Organization (WTO), but all the IOs included here are expected to encounter this challenge. The experts furthermore anticipate that while we will likely see informal and regional institutions emerge as important alternative forums to IOs across policy domains, we are less likely to see the rise of head-on competing institutions. Various case studies under the ENSURED project umbrella also hint in these directions.
Finally, the survey shows that strong state compliance contributes to an IO’s ability to continue carrying out its mandate when it encounters challenges such as withdrawal, a resource crisis, or gridlock. Thus, IOs such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the EU, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) –which the surveyed experts rate highly in terms of state compliance – are better prepared to face these challenges than other IOs. Other institutional characteristics are particularly helpful when an IO encounters specific challenges. Quick reaction speed and high reliance on compulsory budget contributions are only helpful when facing a resource crisis. Hence, these experts perceive that quick reaction speeds make the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), AIIB, IMF, NATO, and the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) best prepared to face this particular challenge. The EU and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) score best in reliance on compulsory budget contributions. In contrast, IOs faced with gridlock particularly benefit from regular independent initiatives on the part of their leadership. Thus, UNEP, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the World Bank are best prepared for this challenge.
The ENSURED Expert Survey – with insights from 763 academic experts from around the world – provides a unique new source of data for scholars to use.
In sum, the ENSURED Expert Survey – with its relatively high response rate that brings together insights from 763 academic experts from around the world – provides a unique new source of data for scholars to use. Expert assessments of the effectiveness, robustness, and democratic quality of 110 IOs nicely complement existing IO datasets, which tend to focus on formal characteristics rather than how they actually function. Our data clarifies some of the key challenges facing IOs as well as the increased importance of alternative institutions. The conjoint experiment provides insight on which aspects these IOs need to strengthen internally if they plan to continue to perform – and indeed survive – in this world in transition.
Citation Recommendation: Verhaegen, Soetkin, Hylke Dijkstra, and Thomas Sommerer. 2025. “Robust, Effective, and Democratic Global Governance for a World in Transition: Evidence From the ENSURED Expert Survey.” ENSURED Research Report, no. 23 (December): 1-39. https://www.ensuredeurope.eu.
.png)
