 Good afternoon or good morning ladies and gentlemen as the case may be on behalf of the Institute for International and European Affairs I am delighted to welcome you To the lecture today by Susanna Malcora. My name is David Sonohu Susanna Malcora is the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina She also served as the shepter cabinet to Bentley Moon the former UN Secretary General and and held a number of very senior posts within the UN system including Chief Operations Officer at WFP and Under Secretary General at the Department for Field Support She also had a very successful private sector career beforehand in Argentina and that is currently the Dean of the IE School of Global and Public Affairs in Madrid and we're really delighted to welcome you today Susanna to the institute Susanna will speak to us on the topic of confronting the long crisis of the multilateral order She'd make a presentation lasting for about 20 minutes and we will then move into a Q&A session with the audience Both parts of the program are on the record Some other housekeeping points. You're very welcome to join the discussion by using the Q&A function Which you will find on zoom at the bottom of the screen Please feel free to send in your questions anytime they occur to you During the session and we'll do our best to get to them And please also feel free to join the discussion on twitter using the handle at IIEA So with that Susanna warm welcome again and over to you Thank you, David and it's a pleasure to see you again You and I go back to New York when you were ambassador there and I was a the the chef the cabinet of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon So it's good to see you and it's a really an honor to be here hosted by IIEA It's an institute that is very well recognized and I am very glad to have the opportunity to speak with you and through you with the whole audience that is behind and when I was asked to to speak in in this context somehow the idea was that I will speak about the multilateral system And I made a very strong point that I was not going to speak about the multilateral system but about the multilateral order And let me make just the point here of why I make that strong distinction And what what we try to do here what I try to do is not to talk about the reform of multilateral institutions per se which of course should be part of a big strategy But what I am trying to address is the deeper question of policy leading An influential space or coalition of states the power behind all of these which is Of course the the order that establishes how we we work together So it's a broader sense of what multilateralism is the one I'm going to try and address And one more point that I would like to make This thinking is based on the work that I'm doing with Bruce Jones from the Brookings institution and We are we have been working on this together So I just want to to make it public that This is not something that I'm doing On my own that Bruce is part of this with this thinking The first thing that I would like to refer to is the notion that people tend to believe that the crisis we are in is a recent crisis And many refer to this crisis and associate this crisis to the arrival of president Trump in the u.s a I will say that this crisis has long roots And these roots have been developed been developing for quite a few years and it probably It is important to understand this these roots and how much they have been lasting The first thing I I think we one needs to recognize is that in in the past Decade or more than the decade there have been strong reversals in international peace and security and clearly the the notion of cooperation that existed after world war and that led to To what we recognize as one of the biggest values of the united nations and started to shift and I Mark 9 11 as a big moment where that shift started to occur And there we we we started to see the the blur notion of What conflict was in the past that was essentially conflict between states moving to conflicts in an asymmetric way conflicts between states and terrorists Which is Something that we had to deal in in a very different manner and also the notion of interstate conflict which also blur with terrorism so this Changing pattern in peace and security Really had an impact that affected the way the the international a Response it was able to come together and bring A solutions to the problem. So that's one first thing how The international peace and security system was addressed the second thing that I I believe has affected the multilateral order Is the reversals in political support for globalization? A clearly clearly in the notion that globalization brought Many of the problems that societies are facing that globalization is the mother of all problems that mother of inequality the mother of losing Jobs the the the real reason behind many many of the social and economic issues that societies face has been an important piece on on how multi the multilateral system started to to lose a steam Then together with this was The reversals that we have seen in the international capacity to provide global public goods And this is interesting because covet 19 has put value to this lack of capacity through the many shortages that we saw facing the pandemic regarding health but the the understanding of the value of global public goods the erosion to the investment of global public goods The the weakening of the political support for global public goods is another element that in In my view in our view together with proust this has a A real impact while all of these occurs, of course, there is a fast evolving technological change which adds to uncertainty and uncertainty leads to a notion of a protectionism hankering down Closing boundaries because it is the way to to go and to respond to the fear that societies have So all of this has been in our view evolving for some time is not a single reason. It's not a single cause and Together with this, of course, there is the rise in geopolitical tensions, which of course adds To the to address some of the issues that each one in them in itself was difficult to to resolve It's clear that For the first time in in nearly four decades We now face the prospect of a serious military hostility between the world's major military power We are I'm not saying that this is likely to happen But it's clear that there is a rising tension that Leads to the perspective to the prospect of hostility And this brings Without any doubt China and the United States head to head But also a u.s. Russian relations that is that are getting more More and more tense although a present violence making with present Putin might help in in a way, but that those tensions and Russia getting a little bit closer to to china adds to the idea of a A potential military hostility This geopolitical challenge exists on on on three levels The first one is in in itself a direct threat to international peace and security. No doubt It's also a challenge to the liberal basis of post cold world For what will happen after world war two? and of course it complicates Efforts to solve all the problems that I have enumerated above so is is the the the geopolitical challenge adds a dimension of complexity of risks that can Enroll even further cooperation on every single front that we are addressing here Even climate change for example, which the by the administration has decided to to Find a way to speak with us with china That in itself could be tainted by the the tensions that are are raised so All of this leads to the continuous intention to to protectionism to the Very very a deliberate decision to ration re nationalize Several domains of technology which could create a divide in the world in a world that covid has proven Is more digital than ever before and that divide could even yield more tensions. No question about it and Is is clear that in One of the the biggest problem that competition brings is that We can get into A notions of zero sign game that will really hurt The ability to construct a world in the new technology Rions that could be equitable and could be Somehow shared by all and So what do we do here? How do we how do we react to it to this and the first thing is that of course There has been a change and I refer to president trump as not being the cause of all the problems that we face that the problems were there before and Were there beyond is his presidency But it's also true that the four years of of president trams trams presidency Put even more strain In the system and in in in in a balance of power. That's very complicated The fact that that president biden has decided to reappear in the international arena. I think It's a very positive a first step that one should also bear in mind that The policy defined by by the current administration is a policy center in the domestic realm the notion of a putting priority To what happens in the domestic world That middle class driven foreign policy that some referred to Is some is clearly at the center of the definition of the biden administration So although the u.s. Is coming back one should not Think about the u.s. Coming back and going back to what used to be the u.s. role in in in in this world so how do we find ways to create a safety nets that help us a protect The the multilateral order to come in a in a more In a way that is more of a cooperation instead of confrontation should go beyond thinking about The big powers and particularly should go beyond thinking that the u.s. Will play the role that it used to play Before because time has changed have changed and in this regard is that we believe that there is a very important opportunity to use different mechanisms Where the middle powers Start to play a significant a significant role The weak tooling of what we have to do now should not be thought In terms of the traditional powers the We should of course still focus on great power dynamics But beyond that the middle powers should really play a significant role And here is where I think We we have to We want to make the case. I want to make a case for what is called a nested multilateralism an approach that recognizes the critical role of great power politics and places great emphasis on constraining the worst potential fallout from great power rivalry a Both in the security military sphere, but also in the management of public goods But organizes small group efforts by middle powers within the multilateral system And keeps alive alive wider more inclusive global multilateralism Including reaching beyond estates to substates actor and here This is something very important We do not believe I do not believe that we should throw away multilateralism as we know it But we need to enrich it and we need to enrich it Bringing together Middle powers that are really interested in fostering the notion and the values and the the significance of the The contribution of multilateralism At the same time we need to expand the net and bring on board for example Substates actors. It was proven during the the the trump administration the value of states within the united States of cities within the united states in the climate change agreement when they withdraw from it So how to Buy space for those those new actors as much as the private sector without any doubt and of course a civil society We have to build a system in an order that is Inclusive that has inclusive global mechanisms that play very important role But there is a problem with inclusive global mechanisms and that is in part, you know the misconception of The the the that exists in in the system That we have to All agree to do something In order to pursue an agenda I think that's a very very serious problem the misconception on consensus consensus It's important when you are willing to work together And then you don't use consensus as a tool to stop You try to get as far as possible and further the agenda. Well, this in a in a moment of of of important Confrontation as we are facing Is a tool that can become very dangerous So we have to retain and keep inclusive global mechanisms, but we need to find to find fallback Approaches that allow for a smaller willing States to further the agenda We have to find ways to for democratic and liberal states To work together and advance key issues But that should not posit a The notion that non-democratic states have no role We have to find always This nested approach that yes, we make our case based on our views Use and principles, but we enlarge and we transcend what what we are Great power tensions also should be recognized as a baseline fact But not should not be treated as immutable As something that cannot be changed within the existing global affairs and every effort should be made To channel tension Into competition instead of conflict and there again It's very very important to limit the fallout on multilateral arrangements of rivalry and bring This notion of competition Which is of course difficult but Powers should be able to to pursue and foster Implementing a strategy of nested multilateralism will require efforts both at the level of political communications And at the level of a specific policy areas and this is something that I believe is critical We should have new we should make new efforts to reimagine a more resilient and more equitable globalization We should develop A a nested regime for the governance of technology, which is critical And we should have we should organize new efforts for cooperation on global public goods Under the conditions of rivalry that we are facing with all of these And quiet diplomacy, which is the fourth effort Mostly by middle powers trying to develop guardrails around very power tensions and to support this notion of Of a back channel communication With all of these I hope we should be able to define a new landscape for this notion of the The multilateral order and find ways to pursue a better future. So with this Which is very broad is very very Deep and it's hard to describe in 20 minutes And I hope I have given a sense of what our thinking is what we are working on