Aequitas Summit

The post-Cold War assumption that globalization would lock states into ever-deeper interdependence has eroded sharply over the past decade. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the intensification of US-China strategic rivalry, the breakdown of WTO dispute settlement after 2019, and the uneven response to the COVID-19 pandemic each exposed how thinly multilateral institutions are tied to great-power consent. Sanctions regimes, export controls on semiconductors and critical minerals, and the weaponization of payment systems such as SWIFT have turned economic interdependence into a vector of coercion rather than a guarantor of peace. At the same time, the global agenda has expanded faster than the institutions meant to handle it. Climate finance pledges made at successive COPs remain underfunded, the UN Security Council has been repeatedly deadlocked over Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and Syria, and reform proposals — from expanding the Council to overhauling the international financial architecture under the Bridgetown Initiative — have stalled. Groupings outside the traditional Western-led order, notably an expanded BRICS+ and the G20 under successive Global South presidencies, are pressing for a more plural system, while middle powers experiment with 'minilateral' coalitions on issues from AI governance to supply-chain resilience. The question before delegates is not whether fragmentation is occurring but how to preserve functional cooperation despite it. Debate is likely to center on whether to defend universal institutions through incremental reform, accept a more regionalized order with issue-specific coalitions, or build new mechanisms — particularly around AI, climate adaptation, debt restructuring, and pandemic preparedness — that can operate even when great-power consensus is absent.