Today's international order is being reshaped by overlapping pressures: climate change, geopolitical rivalry, technological disruption, and economic coercion. The post-1945 multilateral system, largely built by the US and European powers, delivered decades of stability and cooperation, but many of its institutions are increasingly struggling to keep pace with today's realities.
Geopolitical rivalry and rising powers are reshaping the global balance in different ways. Russia has leaned into instability where it can't secure influence through existing structures; China is working to bend elements of the international order toward its own priorities; India and Brazil seek greater autonomy within an increasingly multipolar system; and a more erratic US foreign policy has accelerated the relative decline of American global leadership. Non-state actors add further complexity, from transnational criminal and extremist networks exploiting weak governance, to tech companies advancing AI with little regard for the wider consequences. Climate change compounds all of this as a threat multiplier, straining the interconnected systems, from energy grids to public health, that modern societies depend on. Together, these pressures deepen inequality, erode trust in institutions, and create fertile ground for authoritarian and quick-fix politics.
The years ahead demand more than adapting multilateral institutions to new geopolitical, technological, economic, and climate realities.
This report asks what it will take to defend and reform multilateral governance under these conditions, and to make institutions more robust, effective, and democratic. For the EU and like-minded actors, the years ahead demand more than adapting multilateral institutions to new geopolitical, technological, economic, and climate realities. It also raises a deeper question: can the founding principles of the post-1945 order still hold in an increasingly fragmented and disruptive world?
It sets out recommendations across five policy areas: climate governance and sustainability, trade and taxation, health and pandemics, migration and refugees, and digitalisation, while also engaging in greater detail with the five recommendations already presented in ENSURED's strategic choices report.
Five Recommendations for the EU
Across all five domains, five common priorities emerge, each requiring the EU to navigate real trade-offs:
- Recommendation 1 | Reframe the narrative: The EU should shift its communication strategy to focus on the concrete outcomes and practical benefits of multilateral action, rather than abstract principles. By highlighting real-world successes — such as increased refugee rights, progress on climate targets, and advances in digital standards — the EU can build public trust and counteract scepticism about international cooperation.
- Recommendation 2 | Build coalitions: Effective multilateralism increasingly depends on flexible alliances and pre-negotiated positions with influential partners, especially in the Plural South. The EU should invest in deeper coordination with countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and India and expand its outreach to emerging actors, ensuring that its initiatives reflect broad support and are not perceived as exclusive or Eurocentric.
- Recommendation 3 | Strengthen monitoring and compliance: Strengthening accountability is essential. The EU should support the development of robust monitoring frameworks, such as voluntary peer-review mechanisms in migration and enhanced compliance systems in health and climate agreements. Linking transparency and reporting to funding and participation can incentivise better implementation and foster trust among stakeholders.
- Recommendation 4 | Secure predictable financing: Because many multilateral institutions face chronic funding shortfalls, the EU should advocate for more flexible, long-term funding arrangements, coordinate contributions among member states, and promote direct support for local actors and civil society. This approach would help stabilise key agencies and ensure continuity of essential services, particularly in crisis-prone areas like migration and health.
- Recommendation 5 | Align internal and external policy: The EU’s credibility depends on consistency between its domestic policies and its international advocacy. This requires reducing barriers to civil-society participation, ensuring that internal practices meet the standards promoted abroad, and systematically integrating international commitments into EU law and practice.
The Bigger Picture
The report concludes: Each of the five policy areas calls for its own tailored response, but taken together, they point to a broader challenge for the EU: bringing its strategic narrative, coalition-building efforts, compliance mechanisms, financing approach, and regulatory alignment into a coherent whole. Only by pulling these pieces together can the EU meaningfully strengthen the robustness, effectiveness, and democratic legitimacy of multilateral governance at a moment of deep disruption. That kind of coherence doesn't come for free, though. It requires the EU to be upfront about, and actively manage, a set of underlying trade-offs.
Looking further ahead, the report suggests that the future of global governance is unlikely to be defined by a return to one comprehensive multilateral order. Instead, it will be shaped by an increasingly complex web of overlapping institutions, coalitions, and informal arrangements operating alongside one another. The EU's strategic task, then, is less about restoring the old architecture and more about holding this evolving system together: aligning what it does at home with the commitments it makes abroad, building durable coalitions across regions and regimes, and backing institutions capable of turning agreed norms into real implementation. Approached this way, the EU can help safeguard the substance of multilateral cooperation, even as its formal shape continues to shift and evolve.
Citation Recommendation: Blockmans, Steven. 2026. "Shoring up an International System Adrift: A Policy Guide for the EU in Five Areas of Global Governance." ENSURED Research Report, no. 29 (July): 1–36. https://www.ensuredeurope.eu.
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