Is the era of cooperation coming to an end?
PRESIDENTIAL MEETING: This photo is from May 2025 when President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and US President Donald Trump met in the Oval Office in the White House.
International cooperation and the rules-based order as we know it is now at stake. The inauguration of Donald Trump in his second presidential term, Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine, and great power rivalry are just some of the factors that have had an influence on how countries can work together. In addition, several multilateral organisations are being criticized for a lack of efficiency in solving issues.
In the midst of this, the EU and other institutions are working to maintain international cooperation on one hand and adjusting to the new reality on the other. In a time where uncertainty reigns, we must ask ourselves: Is the era of cooperation coming to an end?
In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage we look at the state of international cooperation both between countries and in different institutions and organisations. We also visit Johannesburg to investigate what international cooperation looks like from a South African point of view.
You will meet Buhle Kokela and Amina Dossa, both students at WITS University, John Karslrud, Research Professor, NUPI, Sithembile Mbete, Executive Director, PARI, and Malte Brosig, Professor WITS University. Host for this episode is Marie Furhovden (NUPI).
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE:
This podcast episode is part of the NUPI led project NAVIGATOR. Visit the project webpage to learn more!
The NAVIGATOR project
The EU Navigating Multilateral Cooperation (NAVIGATOR) is a four-year project investigating how the EU should navigate the increasingly complex and conflict-laden institutional spaces of global governance to advance a rules-based international order. They also look at which factors that should be emphasized when considering which institutions to strengthen, which to reform, and which to by-pass when revitalising multilateralism
NAVIGATOR is led by NUPI and financed by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Call HORIZON-CL2-2021-DEMOCRACY-01 – Grant agreement n°101061621.