Navigating the Multilateral Seas: Lost in Decomposition? - Politique étrangère, Vol. 90, No. 2, Summer 2025
Institutionalized multilateralism seems to be under threat from power politics, especially within the UN system. There are continuing demands for the UN to be reformed. And flexible forms of consultation are being developed, such as club diplomacy and minilateralism. The reshaping of multilateralism is thus taking place mainly outside the institutional system, and its distance from the liberal international order and the multipolar order makes it less likely that the earth's habitability will be placed at the top of the multilateral agenda.
Frédéric Ramel is Professor of Political Science at Sciences Po Paris. As researcher at the Centre de recherches internationales (CERI), he co-directed the ANR DATAWAR program (2019-2023) and coordinates the Groupe de recherche sur l'action multilatérale (GRAM) at CNRS. He has just published Espace mondial (Paris, Presses de Sciences Po, 2024).
Article available in French only, published in Politique étrangère, Vol. 90, No. 2, Summer 2025.
Available in:
Themes and regions
Share
Download the full analysis
This page contains only a summary of our work. If you would like to have access to all the information from our research on the subject, you can download the full version in PDF format.
Navigating the Multilateral Seas: Lost in Decomposition? - Politique étrangère, Vol. 90, No. 2, Summer 2025
Find out more
Discover all our analysesThe Global NATO Debate
The ultimate direction taken by the Alliance – be it a ‘return to home base,’ a ‘global expansion’ or the pursuit of ‘global missions’ – will be heavily influenced by perceptions of what happens in Afghanistan over the next two years.
Considerations on NATO’s Future Direction
The question of how the Alliance can best meet the common security problems of its member states should determine the revision of the Strategic Concept and analysis of the future of NATO in general.
NATO: A View from Central Europe
Poland is not just concerned with the usefulness of the Alliance, but also with what can be done to make it more effective, and to maintain its relevance and good health in the decades ahead.
NATO and ESDP: Institutional Complexities and Political Realities
With 50 years’ seniority over the ESDP, and despite its austere origins, NATO transformed itself during the 20th century into a political-bureaucratic machine in search of a more appropriate international role.