In this short essay, Baroness Catherine Ashton recalls a time when collaboration was more possible and makes the case for a hybrid approach to achieve what is needed in today's complex world. 

Global Alliances: Tankers and Yachts

United Nations building in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo by nexus 7/Shutterstock.

As global alliances undergo profound changes and traditional coalitions are increasingly taking a back seat to both formal and informal partnerships, we look to the United Nations. Arguably the biggest, most established global governing alliance, it often comes under criticism for being too big and too bureaucratic. With the emergence of regional and issue-specific coalitions, how can the UN be most effective in addressing today’s complex challenges? To explore these issues, we turn to Ambassador John Negroponte (retired), who served as US Ambassador to the United Nations. He speaks with Wilson Center President and CEO, Ambassador Mark A. Green (retired). 

Maneuvering the United Nations in Shifting Global Waters

From left, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, China's President Xi Jinping, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose for a BRICS group photo during the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Center in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023. (Gianluigi Guercia/Pool via AP)

Russia’s most recent invasion of Ukraine is fast approaching its two-year anniversary, with no end in sight. Russia continues to put a brave face on this military and economic quagmire, with Prime Minister Mishustin recently claiming that many countries still want to pursue business, trade, and investment in Russia. Such bravado does not do justice to President Putin’s ambitious foreign policy. He is contemplating no less than a new global security architecture, downgrading the US and Europe while pursuing what he obliquely terms the new “multipolar world.” In the process, Putin has lost sight of Russia’s traditional allies and partnerships in the post-Soviet space, revealing major fault lines in current Russian foreign policy. William Pomeranz has more. 

Cacophony of Partnerships

In this multimedia feature, Michael Kugelman and Ambassador Nirupama Rao explore India's use of informal partnerships to further its strategic goals.

Independent India

General view of the NATO Vilnius Summit, July, 11-12, 2023. Photo courtesy of NATO. 

After the Cold War, two European security institutions remained: the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Both organizations—robust tankers in size and complexity—shared the goal of enhancing security on the European continent and across the transatlantic space, despite their different roles and memberships. However, after 30 years, these organizations have charted different courses when adapting to contemporary challenges. Coauthors Robin S. Quinville, Philip T. Reeker, Jason C. Moyer of the Wilson Center’s Global Europe Program examine what is working, and what needs strengthening. 

Reinventing Security and Cooperation in Europe

US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, right, talks with Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) Luis Almagro at the 52nd OAS General Assembly in Lima, Peru, Thursday, October 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo).

Latin America was ahead of its time with the trend to create smaller, more targeted partnerships. Indeed, the region is a graveyard of failed minilateral institutions. After all, the region’s tanker—the historic Organization of American States—has long had to compete with sub regional upstarts, including in recent years the now defunct Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). Today, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) has legs, as the preferred platform for the EU and China to engage with Latin America and the Caribbean. Richard Feinberg examines the long and creative history of alliance diplomacy.

Multilateralism in the Americas

G7 leaders with Ukraine President at the 2023 G7 Summit, Hiroshima, Japan. Photo courtesy G7.

“The Group of Seven (G7) major democratic powers is the smallest, swiftest ship with the most commonly committed and closely coordinated crew on the global governance seas today,” writes scholar John Kirton who goes on to make his case in this thoughtful essay. From its 1975 beginnings with a goal to protect democracy and promote social advancement to the complex challenge of conflict, terrorism, and other security threats, Kirton details how the G7 is more effective than ever.

The G7 Alliance’s Expanding Effectiveness

Since the United Nations was founded in 1945, there has been a profound change in how the world is governed globally. During the decade that followed World War II, many new treaty-based, formal intergovernmental organizations were created. Much of our understanding of international organizations, global governance, and rules-based international order is based on an analysis of the operations of formal inter-governmental organizations (FIGOs). Since the mid-1990s, however, there has been a significant increase in the number of informal governance arrangements and institutional forms. Thomas Biersteker and Kenneth Abbott examine the UN against this backdrop.

As Global Governance Shifts, So Must the UN

As global alliances make profound shifts, the winter 2024 Wilson Quarterly examines emerging partnerships alongside traditional multilateral institutions to help reveal the strongest combinations.

The New Multilateralism

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