The next speaker in this session at the 2026 International Communication Association conference in Cape Town is Sally Boyani, whose focus is on discourse coalitions in global policy debates on the taxation of multinational companies. Such companies are well known for shifting profits to tax havens, costing countries billions of dollars. So far this has not been resolved, and various frameworks have been proposed to address this.
OECD-led frameworks historically have favoured developed countries, and it is unclear how actors dissatisfied with these approaches behave when such frameworks favour the interests of the developed world. International organisations play key roles in agenda-setting and negotiation, but they are highly independent actors competing with national actors.
This paper explores this complex policy debate, applying the advocacy coalition framework to the global discourse on the taxation of multinationals. It addresses core policy beliefs, core policy preferences, and secondary aspects. It draws on some 700 documents from 18 international organisations between 2019 and 2024, coded these for actor type, concept (belief layer), and evaluation (for or against); from this, it used discourse network analysis to model actor congruence networks.
This identified 161 unique actors forming 19 coalitions across six yearly congruence networks; this evolved from broad consensus in 2019 to complete bifurcation on who (UN or OECD) should set the rules in 2024. In between, groups that supported or opposed the Global Minimum Tax proposal emerged, and a pro-OECD coalition of major developed nations formed; this also took positions against UN leadership in this issue.
By the end, there is bifurcation mostly on support for or rejection of the UN’s role in this, divided along developed / developing nation lines. Such venue preferences have a substantial potential for reorganising entire coalition alignments.
Membership in multinational frameworks does not necessarily guarantee policy outcomes, then, and discourse coalitions play a substantial role in shaping global policy outcomes.
