Foreign Policy Dialogues “Revitalizing multilateralism in a fractured world”

The question of how to strengthen multilateralism and global cooperation seems more urgent than ever at the end of 2020. On the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations, the global health crisis caused by the coronavirus has accelerated scenarios of instability, confrontation and uncertainty in international relations, such as great power competition, social and economic fractures, migration flows, or the increase in violence and regional conflicts and tensions in the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America. A fractured world is more vulnerable to address impending global emergencies such as climate change and its destabilizing effects. While there is a wide consensus that multilateralism needs to be strengthened to address these challenges, the reform of the UN Security Council to pursue greater representation and effectiveness seems stalled, and alternative ideas and multilateral proposals are scarce, or fragmented. 

This Dialogue organized by CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation seeks to assess the contemporary constraints to articulate multilateral responses to global problems and identify ways to revitalize multilateralism. To this aim, it brings together diverse scholars in international relations, who are expected to provide short inputs and debate about the limitations and potential of nurturing multilateralism. The Dialogue will take place on 17 December, from 4 pm to 6 pm, and will be divided in two parts: 

The first part revolves around the question: ‘What are the main obstacles to the articulation of multilateral actions?’ This is important to find a common diagnosis on the state of multilateralism in a fractured world. The discussion is not meant to focus only on the geopolitical constraints to reform the Security Council but more broadly on the key dynamics in international relations that have led to “a deficit of multilateral solutions” in a world where there is “a surplus of multilateral challenges”, as the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, put it at the General Assembly meeting marking the 75th anniversary. To catalyze the first discussion, CIDOB will present the conclusions of its UN @ 75: Rethinking Multilateralism report, where eleven researchers have analyzed the evolution of multilateral actions led by the UN on key policy fields such as development, peace, security, or climate change. 

The second part asks a more concrete question to move multilateralism forward: ‘What actions, in what policy fields, when, where and how, can be taken to strengthen multilateralism?’ Again, the discussion is not meant to focus on the proposals to reform the UN Security Council but seeks to identify fields of action that are emerging (or could emerge) to strengthen multilateralism. For instance, the health crisis generated by the coronavirus has prompted initiatives for cooperation, both regionally –as the European Recovery plan or the Africa Taskforce for Coronavirus– and globally –as in the ambitious proposals for developing and distributing the vaccines that are explicitly ‘against vaccine nationalism’. Other policy fields such as sustaining peace and fostering resilience in conflict- and disaster-affected scenarios, trans-regional economic cooperation, or climate change also see the emergence of multilateral initiatives. This discussion on emerging proposals and coordinated actions is relevant to think possibilities for a more ‘inclusive’ and ‘networked’ multilateralism, as Guterres urges to do. 

Both sessions will start from short introductory input statements by the participants that will be followed by a discussion.