Covid has shown that people suffer when countries fail to act unitedly

• We need to act together in the national and global self-interest, to protect critical global public goods.

Current Scnario

• Many of today’s global leaders recognise our common threats – Covid, climate, the unregulated development of new technologies.
• They agree that something needs to be done about them. Yet, that common understanding is not matched by common action.

Reasons

• Foreign policy often becomes a projection of internal politics.
• Despite good intentions, international affairs can be hijacked by domestic politics. Perceived national interests can easily trump the larger global good.
• This impulse is understandable, even if it is wrong-headed in instances where solidarity is in a country’s self-interest.
• Eg: Covid-19 Vaccines
• Many of today’s global institutions or frameworks are outdated or simply weak and the necessary reforms are impeded by geopolitical divides.
• Eg: The authority of the WHO is nowhere near what is required to coordinate the response to global pandemics.
• At the same time, international institutions with more power are either paralysed by division, like the Security Council, or undemocratic, like many of our international financial institutions.

What needs to be done

• Global governance is failing at precisely the moment when the world should be coming together to solve global problems.
• We need to act together in the national and global self-interest, to protect critical global public goods, like public health and a livable climate, that support humanity’s wellbeing.
• Needs more effective and democratic international mechanisms that can solve people’s problems.
• The most vulnerable regions, countries, and people are the first victims of this paradox in global policy.But everyone, everywhere is directly threatened.

Conclusion

• This is our greatest test because so much is at stake. We are already seeing the consequences.
• People start to lose trust in the ability of institutions to deliver, they also risk losing faith in the values that underlie those institutions.
• In every corner of the world, we see an erosion of trust and fear that we are seeing the emergence of the twilight of shared values.
• Injustice, inequality, mistrust, racism and discrimination are casting dark shadows across every society.