The limits of issue ownership by international organisations: ideological demarcation and policy collaboration in global trade governance

How do international organizations (IOs) establish expert authority in crowded policy fields? This article investigates how IOs in global trade governance engage in boundary work to establish and maintain jurisdictional authority. Theoretically, we build on recent work that distinguishes between ‘frontstage’ performances and ‘backstage’ cooperation with research mapping the ideological topography of IOs. We argue that IOs can establish expert authority in a crowded global trade landscape, not by claiming exclusive ownership over key issues, but through the practice of ideological demarcation in flagship communications. Importantly, this practice takes place alongside policy collaboration in the day-to-day operations of trade-related IOs working on similar issues over time. We further demonstrate that intra-IO bureaucratic tensions can render cross-organizational collaboration more functional than internal coordination, as divisions can form epistemic and professional alliances across IO boundaries. Empirically, we focus on the relationship between the World Trade Organization and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, combining automated content analysis and discourse analysis of flagship reports with elite interviews. This article thus enriches our understanding of how IOs engage in boundary politics and complements broader debates on how IOs establish authority, engage in self-legitimation, and navigate inter-institutional conflict, redundancy, and decay.