Crisis or Opportunity? Multilateralism in a Polycentric World

The Policy Center for the New South is organizing an expert roundtable on January 16, 2026, titled: “Crisis or Opportunity? Multilateralism in a Polycentric World”.

The Global cooperation is under stress. Finance, climate, security and technology shocks overlap while major powers contest rules and public budgets shrink. Yet these shifts potentially widen agency for parts of the Global South. This Round Table examines the current moment: does it represent a crisis or opportunity? For whom? What does ‘workable’ cooperation look like in a polycentric order? The presenters use their recent Policy Paper: “Crisis or Opportunity? Pockets of Effective Multilateralism in a Polycentric World” as the basis for critical reflection on the topic. They will present examples from the 2025 Financing for Development conference in Sevilla as pointing to the future in which problem-specific coalitions bringing together likeminded others around specific issues - are pragmatic responses to a fractured international landscape amidst a splintering world order. They argue that these configurations - while neither ideal not all compassing – nonetheless keep the spirit of multilateralism alive in variously sized pockets of effectiveness around the world.