There is no alternative to true multilateralism

THE year 2025 should be a time of celebration, marking eight decades of the UN’s existence. But it risks going down in history as the year when the international order built since 1945 collapsed.

- LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA

The cracks had long been visible. Since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the intervention in Libya and the war in Ukraine, some permanent members of the Security Council have trivialised the illegal use of force.

The failure to act vis-à-vis the genocide in Gaza represents a denial of the most basic values of humanity. The inability to overcome differences is fueling a new escalation of violence in the Middle East, the latest chapter of which includes the attack on Iran.

The law of the strongest also threatens the multilateral trading system. Sweeping tariffs disrupt value chains and push the global economy into a spiral of high prices and stagnation. The World Trade Organisation has been hollowed out, and no one remembers the Doha Development Round.

The 2008 financial collapse exposed the failure of neoliberal globalisation, but the world remained locked into the austerity playbook. The choice to bail out the ultra-wealthy and major corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens and small businesses has deepened inequality. In the past 10 years, the $33.9 trillion (R604 trillion) accumulated by the world’s richest 1% is equivalent to 22 times the resources needed to eradicate global poverty.