Search on Ifri.org

About Ifri

Frequent searches

Suggestions

Multilateralisms: Survival or Revival?

Politique étrangère Issues from Politique Etrangère
|
Date de publication
|
Image de couverture de la publication
vignette couverture PE2-2025
Accroche

The organized multilateralism born out of the Second World War and the Cold War, and revived in the 1990s with the dream of a world of peaceful “global governance,” has fizzled out. The erosion of the large universal frameworks (United Nations, World Trade Organization, arms control and disarmament, international criminal justice, and so on) did not give way to a void but to an excess: a multitude of agreements and schemes that bore witness to the accelerated rebuilding of international relationships. Will institutional anarchy and the open competition of interests visible in uninhibited struggles for power be able to organize themselves around common fundamental interests in the future?

Image principale
Picture PE 2-2025
Table of contents
Table of contents
body

Today, Lebanon symbolizes all the ambiguity resulting from almost two years of war in Gaza. Once again, the question relates to political and institutional recomposition, the reconstitution of a Lebanese army in charge of guarding its borders. But it is common knowledge that beyond its internal complexity, Lebanon’s future depends on the general fate of the region: Will Israel accept a political solution to Gaza, downgrading the aggressiveness of Hezbollah? Can Syria and Jordan retain a degree of stability? Can relations with Iran be normalized to an extent through a nuclear agreement?

Whether we focus on the complex issues of the Middle East or choose to observe the international system as a whole, the era has all the hallmarks of a time of change, with no certainty on what lies ahead.

 

MULTILATERALISMS: SURVIVAL OU REVIVAL?

Saving the UN, Saving Multilateralism, by Bernard Miyet

Navigating the Multilateral Seas: Lost in Decomposition?, by Frédéric Ramel

Preparing for and Responding to Pandemics, by Michel Kazatchkine

The Faces of Multilateralism: Arms Control and Disarmament, by Serge Sur

Digital Challenges: Fragmented Governance, by Benjamin Pajot

 

WHAT WILL POSTWAR LEBANON LOOK LIKE?

Lebanon 2025: Where Wars Intersect, by Joseph Maïla

Lebanon: How Much has Changed?, by Nabil el Khoury
 

CURRENT AFFAIRS

Syria: Post Assad, the Trap of Permanent Conflict, by Fabrice Balanche

The Baltic Sea and the War in Ukraine, by Philippe Perchoc

 

BAROMETERS

The “Europe of Internal Security”: An Unknown Quantity, by Jean Mafart

France and Chad: One Crisis after Another, by Nathaniel Powell

South Caucasus: History, Europeanness and Geostrategy, by Pierre Andrieu

 

REFLECTIONS

The IMEC: Trade Routes in a Multipolar World, by Simon Savary

 

 

Other information:

224 pages. 23 euros.

June 6th, 2025.

Diffusion : Pollen/Dif'Pop.

Subscription: Armand Colin.

To buy an issue: leslibraires.fr.

To buy the Epub (in French): Immatériel.fr.

Have a look on Politique étrangère's blog: Politique étrangère.

Iframe
Decoration

Available in:

ISBN / ISSN

979-10-373-0956-3

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.

Decoration
Author(s)
Image principale

Trump II: The Clash of Ideologies

Date de publication
09 September 2025
Accroche

The second Trump administration brings together a number of very different, even opposing, ideologies: far-right populism, the reactionary Christian right, paleolibertarianism, and technolibertarianism. The most visible measures taken since Donald Trump's return to the White House have been populist in nature, with the president's authority strengthened, checks and balances weakened, a form of identity politics embraced, and economic nationalism implemented.

Image principale

Europe Uncovered?

Date de publication
09 September 2025
Accroche

As Russia continues to threaten Europe, the Trump administration is making no secret of its desire to withdraw—at least partially—from the defense of the Old
Continent in order to focus on strategic competition with China. It is thus putting pressure on its European allies to increase their investment in the military sector. The NATO Summit in The Hague in June 2025 resulted in ambitious commitments by member states to increase their defense spending.

Élie TENENBAUM Guillaume GARNIER
Image principale

Trump II and Asia: The Wind is Picking Up…

Date de publication
09 September 2025
Accroche

The Indo-Pacific is a priority for the second Trump administration, which sees China as the United States' principal rival. However, Donald Trump began his second term in a rather disconcerting fashion by taking a harder line with Washington's traditional partners. He then provoked hostilities with Beijing, sparking a trade war even more intense than during his first term. The Chinese authorities have no intention of taking it lying down.

Image de couverture de la publication
Vignette couverture 3-2025

Trump II and the World / Politique étrangère, Vol. 90, No. 3, 2025

Date de publication
09 September 2025
Accroche

Does Trumpism exist? And if so, how can its ideology be characterized, given the myriad currents underpinning it—from populism and the Christian Right to paleolibertarianism and technolibertarianism? Does it embody a genuine worldview that informs its diplomatic actions?  An obsessive drive to overturn long-standing practices, alliances, and commitments deemed “detrimental” to American interests, coupled with a fixation on transactional, one-off deals, appears to serve as its de facto strategy—hence the widespread weakening of allied ties. Observers are equally at a loss to discern an economic strategy, and above all reluctant to anticipate the possible outcomes of its contradictory maneuvers.

How can this study be cited?

Image de couverture de la publication
vignette couverture PE2-2025
Multilateralisms: Survival or Revival?, from Ifri by
Copy
Image de couverture de la publication
vignette couverture PE2-2025

Multilateralisms: Survival or Revival?