Introduction

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 1 sets out the nature of the United Nations’ transformation in funding and governance and the puzzle it poses to standard conceptions of the UN system and to international relations theory. It explicates how funding relates to multilateral governance and how changes to funding rules have slowly, and quietly, transformed fundamental principles of UN governance. The chapter previews the contours of the book’s theoretical framework. It makes the case that identifying instances of international rule change based on negotiation and revision misses much of the action, which occurs through legal interpretive tools like subsequent agreement and practice. It introduces the importance of genuine uncertainty, permissive rules, and creative agents to understanding subterranean transformation. Finally, it outlines three sets of contributions related to institutional transformation and the historical institutionalist research program, the integration of legal interpretive strategies to how international rules change, and new conceptions of United Nations programs as actors in world politics.