A requiem for multilateralism

Even as the heyday of multilateralism is over, global interdependence has increased dramatically

- NITIN DESAI

Eighty years ago, the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America, took the lead in establishing multilateral institutions and shared its power with other nations. Today, that same country is moving away from multilateralism. The current US President is asserting supranationalist interests in relations with other countries on political and economic matters, pursuing them with transactional diplomacy devoid of ethical considerations.

In the halcyon days of multilateralism during the 1990s, the prospects for strengthening global cooperation looked very promising due to the political changes in Russia and the Eastern bloc states and the liberalism in Western countries. All that has changed. We are back to an assertive Russia, and now also a powerful China, and witnessing the death of liberalism in the US and its attenuation in many European countries. As someone who worked in the UN during that optimistic period, I present to you a requiem for multilateralism—launched about 80 years ago and now, sadly, in a state of decline.

But first, a qualification. The world is not a political unit, either in law or in fact, and the United Nations (UN) and related multilateral institutions cannot yet be viewed as part of a geographic hierarchy of governance institutions. We do not have a world state, or a world society, or even, in the real sense, a unified world economy. What we have, at best, is an inter-country community of some politicians, bureaucrats, academics, and business leaders, who share some values and look for joint action to cope with common risks and the compulsions of globalization.