Can multilateralism be saved?

As the world shifts toward a more regionally driven order, where power and security are dictated by strength rather than law, multilateralism faces an existential crisis.

This has been made strikingly clear by recent events in the US. Oscillating between retreat and selective engagement, the US now sees global cooperation in transactional terms – as a business not a shared responsibility.

This shift has created uncertainty and left a vacuum. From Africa to Asia, nations are adapting. Some are welcoming a less interventionist US, others are seizing opportunities in a lawless landscape.

This episode examines what’s at stake for multilateralism as this new global order unravels. We hear what practical steps that can be taken to strengthen and reinvent multilateralism, including through a new coalition of smaller powers. Our guests also examine the role of China, and the significance of next year’s UN Secretary-General election.

Guests

• Sara Pantuliano (host), Chief Executive, ODI Global
• Lord Mark Malloch-Brown, Advisor, Bretton Woods at 80 initiative
• Ambassador Antônio Patriota, Brazil’s Ambassador to the UK
• Yunnan Chen, ODI Global Research Fellow

Related resources

• Out of the rubble (Insight, ODI Global)
  
  
• Reimagining multilateralism: seizing the opportunity for change (Insight, ODI Global)
  
  
• Navigating fragility: the new multilateral agenda (Event video and podcast, ODI Global)
  
  
• What are the costs and impacts of shutting down USAID? (Think Change podcast, ODI Global)
  
  
• ODI Global's work on China