Despite causing more harm than all illegal drugs combined, alcohol remains the only widely consumed psychoactive substance without a binding international treaty. This thesis investigates how international norms on alcohol regulation have evolved between 2010 and 2022. It asks whether they have progressed beyond the norm emergence phase within the WHO. Using a constructivist IR lens, specifically Finnemore and Sikkink’s norm life cycle theory, a comparative documentary analysis of the WHO’s 2010 and 2022 global alcohol strategies will be conducted. The analysis finds that there are signs of partial progression in the themes of policy goals and actors but global governance fragmentation, national sovereignty and industry influence keep the overall norm in the late emergence stage. This highlights both the potential and volatility of current norm developments and highlights the need for intensified norm entrepreneurship, investments in the governance infrastructure in LMICs and the formal exclusion of the industry from policy spaces.