A few weeks ago, Dr. Richard Ponzio spoke with the host of the Cooperadio, Prof. Jan Aart Scholt. Their discussion focused on the questions: does traditional multilateral cooperation have a future? What will diplomacy post-COVID-19 look like? And what role could private actors play in the global cooperation architecture of the future. As a mode of global cooperation, multilateralism has been under strain long before the onset of the pandemic, as certain actors have been contesting either its functionality or even its value altogether. Evidence of an increasingly fragile internationalism, where great powers instrumentalize institutions for geopolitical calculations, has loomed not just since the protectionist turn of the Trump administration. However, there is reason to be mildly optimistic about how this crisis will be dealt with, given, for instance, the United States‘ return to a more international profile under the Biden administration.

Listen to the podcast episode.