ABSTRACT
Orchestration is a conceptual approach that emphasizes the role of agency and actor dynamics in addressing global challenges. It is an indirect mode of governance that relies on persuasion, nudging and incentives, by which an orchestrator mobilizes third-party intermediaries to achieve shared objectives. In the realm of global sustainability governance, orchestration has been widely employed to study the behaviour and influence of actors who lack the ability to directly enforce rules or delegate governance tasks. While a diverse array of actors can engage in orchestration, international organizations and their bureaucracies are particularly inclined to use it due to their limited resources and mandates. Scholars have utilized this framework to investigate how the bureaucracies of international organizations manage or bypass states to influence policymaking, mainly by enlisting non-state actors to exert pressure on national governments in line with the goals of international organizations or by shaping the behaviour of private actors, thereby circumventing state oversight.
