Crisis narratives and institutional resilience: a framework for analysis

The term ‘resilience’ is widely used in current analysis of world politics to refer to a situation where institutions surprisingly sustain themselves against otherwise dire prospects. Yet, discussions of institutional resilience tend to underappreciate its dynamic character. This article proposes a reconceptualization of institutional resilience that centers the productive power of crisis. It argues that institutional resilience is best understood as an interpretative process rooted in a co-constitutive dynamic of crisis and adaptation. Resilience is made possible through the (re)production of a crisis narrative in context. We illustrate this argument with two case studies looking into how this dynamic unfolds in the context of political regimes (Cameroon) and international organizations (ASEAN). Doing so, we make the case for the development of a broader research agenda that can contribute to a better understanding of how institutions that are portrayed as frail and unstable not only survive but transform over time.