In the study of international organisations (IOs), time and space have mostly been approached as contextual, or even implicit factors.
Instead, this special issue considers them as co-constitutive of multilateralism and asks key and innovative questions: How are IOs influenced by time and space? How are time and space experienced within IOs? How do IOs influence time and space around them?
This introductory article co-edited by Lucile Maertens, Leah Kimber, Fanny Badache & Emilie Dairon discloses that IOs are influenced by the spatiotemporal conditions of their enactment, leading to a diversity of practices and experiences within these organizations which in turn impact time and space, both in the way they are conceptualized and in their concrete embodiment.
This special issue, in taking time and space seriously in the study of IOs, makes an important contribution to the study of global governance. It also proposes a series of research avenues to continue this promising analytical and empirical endeavour, including discussions on the relationship between IO performance and time and space.