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Navigating the Multilateral Seas: Lost in Decomposition? - Politique étrangère, Vol. 90, No. 2, Summer 2025

Politique étrangère Articles from Politique Etrangère
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Politique étrangère, Vol. 90, No. 2, Summer 2025
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Politique étrangère, n°3/2025, automne 2025
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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.

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Visuel article Ramel, PE 2-2025
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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.

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Navigating the Multilateral Seas: Lost in Decomposition? - Politique étrangère, Vol. 90, No. 2, Summer 2025

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A New Path for Europe

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02 June 2026
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The construction of the European Union is historically inseparable from the emergence, at the end of World War II, of an Atlantic world dominated by the United States. Successive enlargements and the revision of U.S. policy are undermining the concepts upon which the European Union has been built since the fall of the USSR. It is undoubtedly time to return to a path of more diverse groupings, corresponding to the levels of commitment and the interests of the states of the Old Continent.

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How Technology Is Reshaping the World Order

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02 June 2026
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The central role of technology in the competition between the major powers is fueling an ever-more intense rivalry. Artificial intelligence is enabling large corporations to accrue unprecedented power, with consequences for states and even for international conflict. However, states do have tools at their disposal to regulate these developments. In this international competition, Europe has a strong hand, but must be prepared to play its cards in order to create a new kind of international cooperation.

Anu BRADFORD
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Reflections on A Darkening World

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02 June 2026
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The system that emerged after the Second World War to regulate international relations is now moribund. Russia and China may have weakened it, but it seems that Donald Trump’s United States may deliver the fatal blow. The prevailing atmosphere is one of power struggles, and the rise of nationalisms is fraught with danger. The artificial intelligence revolution also needs to be factored into this equation, as it has a strong bearing on how much power different players can exert. In this respect, Europe must ensure it does not get left behind.

Jean-Marie GUÉHENNO
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1936-2026: 90th Anniversary of the Journal "Politique étrangère"

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02 June 2026
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Founded in 1936 and published by the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), Politique étrangère, France’s longest-running journal of international relations, is set to publish a special issue in early June 2026. Bringing together leading contributors from France and abroad, this issue aims to offer a panorama of an uncertain world and its possible futures. In an unprecedented initiative, Politique étrangère will bring together a broad range of international contributions in an effort to capture an international scene that is at once open and fragmented in all its diversity and dynamism.

How can this study be cited?

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Politique étrangère, n°3/2025, automne 2025
Frédéric RAMEL, « Navigating the Multilateral Seas: Lost in Decomposition? - Politique étrangère, Vol. 90, No. 2, Summer 2025 », Politique étrangère, Articles from Politique Etrangère, Ifri, 6 June 2025.
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Image de couverture de la publication
Politique étrangère, n°3/2025, automne 2025

Navigating the Multilateral Seas: Lost in Decomposition? - Politique étrangère, Vol. 90, No. 2, Summer 2025