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22. The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Transformation of International Order: A Short Overview
- Author:
- Amer Ababakr
- Publication Date:
- 06-2022
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Liberty and International Affairs
- Institution:
- Institute for Research and European Studies (IRES)
- Abstract:
- The Covid-19 pandemic has affected most of the world, adding health security as a new challenge. Instead of facing these challenges, some states move towards a system of competition and intolerance, which forms new patterns in the international order. This questions the impact of the pandemic on the strategic dynamics of the international order. This article argues that the global pandemic transforms the political system and the way of governing liberal democracy more than any other factor. It took the form of a variable, driver, and accelerator, and the established world order transformed into a new form of order. Using the descriptive-analytical method and the theories of international relations, the current study examined the impact of the pandemic on the strategic dynamics of the international order.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, Pandemic, COVID-19, Political Crisis, and International Order
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
23. New Global Progress Survey Highlights the Major Challenges of Global Inflation
- Author:
- John Halpin
- Publication Date:
- 09-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for American Progress - CAP
- Abstract:
- The rising cost of living is hitting citizens everywhere.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, International Cooperation, and Inflation
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
24. We’ll always have Paris: How to adapt multilateral climate cooperation to new realities
- Author:
- Anthony Dworkin and Mats Engström
- Publication Date:
- 10-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
- Abstract:
- Ahead of COP27, multilateral climate negotiations are stalling due to geopolitical tensions, distrust between the global south and high-income countries, and concerns about energy supplies. It is necessary to move faster in implementing emissions-reduction measures, but the need for consensus in the global climate process makes this difficult. At the same time, drivers of action on climate change are evolving, with countries now competing for economic advantage in new green technologies. The EU and its partners are right to combine negotiations under the UN climate convention with initiatives that bring together like-minded and ambitious countries to accelerate industrial transformation. To be effective and legitimate, these efforts should remain rooted in the multilateral system and incorporate substantial climate funding for emerging markets and lower-income countries. EU institutions and member states should also work to strengthen the capacity of multilateral institutions to support efforts on climate change.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, International Cooperation, European Union, Multilateralism, and Paris Agreement
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
25. After the Allocation: What Role for the Special Drawing Rights System?
- Author:
- Tobias Pforr, Fabian Pape, and Steffen Murau
- Publication Date:
- 03-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
- Abstract:
- In August 2021, the IMF made a new SDR allocation to help ease pandemic-induced financial strains in the Global South. This paper assesses the potential of the SDR system to address debt- related problems in global finance. We analyze the SDR system as a web of interlocking balance sheets whose members can use SDR holdings—the system’s tradable assets—for conversion into usable currency as a perpetual low-interest loan or to make payments to each other. Using original IMF data, we study how the system has been practically used since 1990. Though widely perceived as a solution in search of a problem in the post-Bretton Woods era, we find that the SDR system provides three mechanisms through which IMF members borrow and lend usable currency to each other, with different strings attached: first, transactions by agreement; second, the IMF’s core lending facilities for which the SDR system offers additional resources; and third, IMF-sponsored Trusts which seek to harness the SDR system for development purposes and are the basis for the current idea of ‘voluntary channeling’. Overall, given the SDR system’s idiosyncratic accounting rules, the new allocation can improve the liquidity position of a country and offer some limited avenues for sovereign debt restructuring but comes with new interest and exchange rate risks. Voluntary channeling cannot happen without a wealth transfer, neither the SDR allocation nor the use of Trusts can overcome this problem. Still, Trusts can be a useful instrument to help with debt forgiveness and to ensure that borrowed funds are used for their intended purpose.
- Topic:
- Economics, International Cooperation, Finance, and IMF
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
26. Imperial Preference
- Author:
- Sven Biscop
- Publication Date:
- 10-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
- Abstract:
- When the economy is globalised but decisions on policy are made in national capitals, states can choose to cooperate and run the global economy in their collective interest, even as they remain economic competitors. Or they can try to fence off their share of the market and force all others out – and economic competition quickly turns into geopolitical rivalry. Is this what will mark the 21st century?
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, International Cooperation, and Hegemony
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
27. The OSCE and a 21st century spirit of Helsinki: Opportunities to shift security back to the people
- Author:
- Bradley Reynolds and Johanna Ketola
- Publication Date:
- 08-2022
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- A common understanding of the OSCE and the security it seeks to promote has been in decline since 2008. The war in Ukraine and renewed Russian invasion in February 2022 have led many to ask how to sustain the OSCE going forward. One consideration is to temporarily remodel the OSCE as a ‘consensus minus one’ organization to exclude Russia from decision-making. This would allow the institutional set-up and characteristics of a liberal world order institution to be maintained. Another perspective is the return to a Cold War conference model, which would facilitate dialogue with Russia and its allies despite Moscow’s active dismantling of the OSCE and its principles. The immediate future for the OSCE looks dim. Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act in 2025 and in preparation for the Finnish OSCE Chairpersonship, this Briefing Paper argues that the perspectives of civil society may help retain a key tenet of the OSCE process and help reimagine a new Helsinki spirit. An expanded, interdimensional Moscow Mechanism may offer a via media between the two perspectives and continue to incorporate civil society perspectives into the operational work of the OSCE.
- Topic:
- Security, Civil Society, International Cooperation, and Liberal Order
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
28. Fostering constructive relations Approaches to trust-building in peacebuilding interventions
- Author:
- Viktoria Budde and Karoline Eichhoff
- Publication Date:
- 05-2022
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Berghof Foundation
- Abstract:
- The international community is currently facing a dilemma: although building trust between representatives of state institutions and the population is one of the fundamental components of cooperation between donors and recipient countries of support services in the security sector, we are observing worldwide that trust in state institutions fades. Confidence-building initiatives between citizens and, for example, the police and the military obviously do not always contribute to improvement. Therefore, basic assumptions about the role of trust and how trust-building works in conflict societies must be questioned.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, Conflict, Social Order, and Trust
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
29. Mediating the political transformation of non-state armed groups Workshop report
- Author:
- Berghof Foundation
- Publication Date:
- 04-2022
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Berghof Foundation
- Abstract:
- Together with the United Nations DPO DDR section, our team working to improve international support to transformation processes of non-state armed groups after wars and conflicts, organised a workshop with international experts in Berlin.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, United Nations, Governance, and Conflict
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
30. Climate Finance Effectiveness: Six Challenging Trends
- Author:
- Beata Cichocka and Ian Mitchell
- Publication Date:
- 12-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development
- Abstract:
- This paper identifies and explores a number of challenges in using international public climate finance effectively towards contributing to low-carbon and resilient growth in lower- and middle-income countries. We explore key quantitative and qualitative trends in the climate finance architecture, including predictability of disbursements, affordability and concessionality of funding, provider proliferation and project fragmentation, implementation via modalities supporting recipient ownership, and the degree to which climate-related interventions are evaluated. Our research considers these trends against globally agreed principles of development effectiveness, with the aim of improving understandings of both the common and the climate-specific challenges within development finance. Ultimately, we find that climate-related development finance faces a number of challenges relative to other official development flows, including significantly lower disbursement ratios, a higher share of finance provided through debt instruments—and a rising share of loans to lower-income countries assessed as being at high risk of debt distress, a faster pace in proliferation of providers and shrinking project sizes, and fewer efforts to systematically evaluate impacts of interventions. Each of these areas will need to be tackled by public climate finance providers to ensure that the available funding is used towards climate objectives effectively. These and other issues related to the quality of climate finance should also be considered during the design of the new quantitative climate finance target under the UNFCCC to ensure that the structure of the goal promotes accountability and increases recipients’ ability to trust in the climate finance architecture.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, International Cooperation, and Resilience
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus