GTV��ͬ

This seminar presentation advances the notion of “post-multilateralism” to capture the contemporary conjunctural shifts in global governance and world order: a condition in which the formal shells of multilateralism persist, but their core principles are increasingly hollowed out and strategically undermined. 

Against institutionalist accounts that treat governance pathologies as unintended by-products of complex interdependence, we develop a historical materialist explanation that dialectically links the unmaking of multilateralism to structural shifts in geopolitics and the global political economy. We specifically argue that the emerging non-hegemonic character of the current world order has altered the incentive structures for states, reducing support for universal, binding forms of multilateralism. 

This shift is expressed in deliberate strategies by powerful social forces to sabotage, divert, bypass, and disengage from the institutions and norms of post-1945 multilateralism. While some actors seek to shore up multilateralism or to revise its liberal content, these efforts are largely partial and palliative, and often generate pathological effects that further erode its vitality. 

We situate this post-multilateral condition historically, specify the mechanisms through which it unfolds, and illustrate how they manifest within a discrete policy field. We conclude by assessing the implications for sovereignty, geopolitics, equality, and problem-solving capacity, and advance a research agenda for global governance in a non-hegemonic world order.

GTV��ͬ the speaker

is a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the School of Social Sciences, Monash University. His research focuses on the global governance of the global political economy, specifically the role of private actors in contributing to and contesting global policy agendas, and the transformation and global institutions in an era of geopolitical competition. He has published articles in Review of International Political Economy, Journal of Common Market Studies, Global Policy and Global Governance, and his latest book, with Shahar Hameiri, is The Locked-Up GTV��ͬ: Learning the Lessons from Australia’s Covid-19 Response (University of Queensland Press, 2023).

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