As the world approaches 2026, optimism is in short supply. Armed conflicts are raging across roughly 50 countries. Trade wars and tariff barriers, once viewed as policy aberrations, have become normalized tools of statecraft. Global economic growth has slowed to its weakest pace in generations, while climate shocks, pandemics, and supply-chain disruptions have become recurring features of everyday life. If there is one defining characteristic of the current moment, it is uncertainty-layered, persistent, and global.

Yet amid this turbulence, it would be a mistake to conclude that multilateralism is finished. While the institutions and norms that once defined the post–Second World War order are undeniably eroding, public attitudes and structural realities suggest that international cooperation remains not only possible but necessary. The challenge lies not in convincing people that the world is interconnected-they already know that-but in proving that cooperation can still deliver tangible benefits in an era of fear, fragmentation, and nationalist politics.

The instability of our time is not accidental. It is the product of three deep and interrelated transformations reshaping the global system.

First, the world is moving from unipolarity to multipolarity. The post–Cold War moment, dominated by American economic, military, and ideological power, has given way to a far more diffuse landscape. China, India, regional powers, and non-aligned states are asserting greater autonomy, while traditional Western dominance is no longer taken for granted.

Second, the rules-based international order is increasingly being replaced by a power-based one. Legal norms, multilateral agreements, and institutional constraints are yielding to brute force, coercion, and transactional diplomacy. From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the erosion of arms control regimes, the message is clear: power, not principle, is once again shaping outcomes.

Third, economics is no longer driving politics; politics is driving economics. The era of hyper-globalization has been supplanted by protectionism, industrial policy, and mercantilist competition. States now prioritize “security of supply,” domestic resilience, and strategic autonomy over efficiency and openness. Trade is weaponized, technology is restricted, and economic interdependence is treated as a vulnerability rather than a strength.

Together, these shifts have produced a fractured and unsettled world-one in which old assumptions no longer hold, but no new consensus has yet emerged.

The institutions and norms established after 1945 are under........

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