29 January 2024
The system of global governance from 1945 onwards, always subject to challenge, has become increasingly fragile, perhaps heading to disintegration, given the shifts in global power balances over recent decades, now brought into stark relief by the invasion of Ukraine and the Israel/Palestine crisis. But the need for global governance and collaboration has been intensifying as the planet also becomes increasingly fragile, as have the foundations of human health and sustainable, open economies.
Common interests demand global collaboration, but they are in tension not only with particular national interests but also clashing value systems - along a spectrum from liberal democracy to authoritarianism, with a further dimension of populism undermining liberal democratic norms in the West – along with the rivalries, shifting in line with whatever is in contention, between status quo and revisionist powers.
Given these complexities, what will global governance look like in the future? Who will make and enforce the rules? There is likely to be a variable geometry, given great power alliances and competition, with variations along ideological and geographic axes. How can global governance adapt to this geometry and remain effective amidst the shifting distribution of power? Would a more regionalized approach strengthen or weaken the pursuit of global goals? The system is likely to be messy and develop in unanticipated directions, but what principles might help to reshape a system resilient to present and future stresses?
The eighth Palliser Lecture was delivered by Pascal Lamy, coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institutes and vice-chairman of the Paris Peace Forum. On January 29, 2024, guests convened at Aga Khan Centre, London, UK, to hear the former director-general of the World Trade Organization speak.
Read a summary of Pascal's lecture, watch a recording, or view photos on Facebook and Flickr of the reception, lecture, and Q&A.