Multilateral Cooperation and Multilateralism
The future of multilateral cooperation in a changing global landscape and constitutional moment for the world and global governance
Global challenges increasingly require collective solutions. Our research explores how multilateral cooperation can adapt to geopolitical change, emerging technologies, and growing societal pressures.
By producing rigorous and policy-relevant evidence, we support efforts to strengthen international collaboration, improve global governance, and advance shared public goals.
Our Working Group
Co-Chairs
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Mehmet Sait Akman has served as academician on international trade and EU studies at Marmara University in Istanbul. He is currently a senior research fellow in Centre for Multilateral Trade Studies at Turkish Economic Policy Research Institute (TEPAV), a leading policy think-tank in Ankara, Turkey.
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Dr. Mikatekiso Kubayi is a Senior Researcher at the South African Research Chair on African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, University of Johannesburg. His works on Multilateralism, including the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, African Union, European Union, and others. He has represented the Institute for Global Dialogue, associated with UNISA, at the India T20, Brazil T20, and South Africa T20, and is now a member of the coordinating team supporting the Advisory Board of T20 USA. Until May 2026, he led T20 Work for IGD, the T20 South Africa Secretariat’s Content Team, and the T20 Inception and T20 Mid-Term Conferences.
He is a member of The Council for Global Solutions: a structure of the Global Solutions Initiative (Germany). He is also involved in the Solutions Lab of the Global Solutions Initiative (Germany). Dr. Kubayi previously served as Political Advisor in the Office of the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of South Africa, serving then-Speaker Mr. Max Sisulu, before both joining the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). His research interests include Power, Global Political Economy (global financial architecture), African Political Economy, and BRICS. He is a member of the Valdai Discussion Club (Russia), the ANUMDI think tank network (Africa), and the Southern Voice think tank network. He has published several journal articles on Development, Agency, African Agency, BRICS, G20, and other dimensions of multilateralism.
ANUMDI: a network of African think tanks, participating at an executive level
MENARA: a network of Middle East and North Africa think tanks
Valdai Discussion Club. A think tank in the Russian Federation
Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA), an AU structure researching Illicit Financial Flows
Latest work
WHITE PAPER
Toward a New World Order
For decades, the global economy ran on a quiet assumption: that rules—codified, institutionalized, and broadly respected—could promote trust. That assumption is now breaking down. The world stands at a crossroads, not simply because geopolitical tensions are rising, but because the underlying architecture of cooperation—the rule-based, liberal democratic world order—is unraveling.
PROVOCATION
Towards Reconstitution of the G20
The UK’s 2027 G20 Presidency arrives at a constitutional moment for global governance. The UK has formally confirmed that it will host the G20 in 2027, and official UK statements in early 2026 indicate that initial plans are already being discussed with major partners. That matters because the G20 itself was elevated to leaders’ level in the 2008 financial crisis; in other words, it was born as an adaptive response to systemic breakdown, not as a fixed constitutional order.
ARTICLES
Commentary responses on Towards Reconstitution of the G20
A series of responses to the provocation ‘Towards Reconstitution of the G20’.