Extreme global rivalries are actually making international groups more active and tougher, instead of tearing them apart.
SSRN · March 17, 2026 · 6316040
The Takeaway
Common wisdom suggests that as the US and China decouple, global institutions should collapse or fragment into rival blocs. Instead, this research shows that because both powers want to 'lock in' their own technical standards, they are escalating their participation in international bodies, making these organizations more central to global governance than they were during peaceful times.
From the abstract
Technological standards have become central instruments of geopolitical competition among the United States, the European Union, and the People's Republic of China (PRC). While existing theories predict either hegemonic dominance or fragmentation into rival techno-blocs under regulatory divergence, global standard-setting institutions have neither collapsed nor converged. Instead, they remain active arenas of intense contestation. This research develops a new theoretical framework-Institutionali