This book explores the factors behind the collapse of World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerials - as in Seattle in 1999 and Cancun in 2003 - and asks why such events have not significantly disrupted the development of the multilateral trading system. It argues that the political conflicts played out during these meetings, their occasional collapse and the reasons why such events have so far not proven detrimental to the development of the multilateral trading system can be explained by examining the way in which the institution was created and has developed through time.