Externe Publikationen

Crisis or opportunity? Pockets of effective multilateralism in a polycentric world

Ishmael, Len / Stephan Klingebiel / Andy Sumner
Externe Publikationen (2026)

in: Policy Paper 01/26, Rabat: Policy Center for the New South/Mohammed VI Polytechnic University

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Global cooperation is under stress. Finance, climate, security, and technology shocks overlap, while major powers contest rules and public budgets shrink. Yet these shifts potentially widen agency for parts of the Global South. This paper asks how the current moment should be viewed: does it represent a crisis or opportunity, and what does workable cooperation look like in a polycentric world? We use the 2025 Financing for Development conference in Seville as a point of reference for our reflections. Against this backdrop, we argue that a managed, issue-based new multilateralism is emerging, organized around ‘pockets of effectiveness’, or bounded, likeminded coalitions that work on concrete tasks. While universal multilateralism is likely to remain challenging, practical cooperation is feasible on some issues. If ‘the who’ is likeminded coalitions of countries, then ‘the how’ of new multilateralism is found in these ‘pockets’.