Discourse change in international organizations: How UN peace operations respond to global normative change and shifting power distributions

How do international organizations (IOs) respond to global normative change and shifting power distributions among their member states? In this article, I argue that the discourse of IOs at the micro-level adapts in imperfect ways to such macro-level changes: discursive shifts will display a compromise between adapting to macro-level pressures and catering to more sticky organizational values. I test this argument by studying how the human rights discourse of two large UN peace operations adapted to a macro-level paradigm shift from liberal peacekeeping to stabilization. I observe a change in discourse in line with the macro-level paradigm shift, which, however, displayed significant aspects of continuity in order to uphold core organizational norms. This gives reason to believe that, in the current era of (emerging) multipolarity and normative change, IOs will continue to be responsive to such macro-level changes, but will nevertheless display imperfect adaptation.