Introduction

The post-Second World War global order is unravelling. While the system had been on shaky ground for years, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed many assumptions resting on this 80-year-old architecture over the edge. Today, calls for change reverberate louder, a new era of great-power competition has set in, frustration with the current system of global governance has grown, and globalisation and multilateralism are facing stronger headwinds.

Amid these shifts, new geographies, actors, and polities are looking to exert and build influence. They are challenging the notions that states small in geography or population are destined to be weak. Novel concepts such as ‘minilateralism’ are infusing lifesaving breath to the idea of regionalism as a better conduit for goals such as economic integration and even conflict resolution.

The spokes of the global order wheel are disengaging and looking to build their own ecosystems that feed into strengthening their own core interests. As the international community appears to be failing in finding plausible resolutions to conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, demands are heightening to institute institutional changes within the United Nations (UN), and more specifically, the UN Security Council.

This compendium of essays examines these shifts, complementing many of the themes driving the inaugural edition of the Yerevan Dialogue. Our contributors cover nearly every geography in the world, showing their unique perspectives on a diverse range of topics, from healthcare and digital societies to connectivity, multipolarity, and security. As geoeconomics takes centre stage in international relations, the Caucuses, and more specifically Armenia, stand at the precipice of gaining significantly given their geographic boons.

Victor Kipiani opens the volume with an exploration of how cross-regional connectivity can benefit the region. Victor looks at Georgia and how small economies can place themselves as key incubators of larger geoeconomics by prioritising and adjusting their domestic and regional policies. In the second piece, Marianna Albuquerque takes a broader view of some of the challenges facing the multilateral order and how concepts such as minilateralism and microlateralism are being proposed, and in some cases mobilised, to circumvent the blockages facing international institutions today. Running on a similar theme, Erin Watson and Ratu Bintang Assyifa Arweys then delve into a critical facet of modern multilateralism—i.e., digitalisation—and how technologies are integrating into both the opportunities and challenges that face societies.

Pivoting once again to a more regional outlook, Vali Golmohammadi examines the interests of Iran and how its ports, such as Chabahar in the country’s south, connect the Caucuses not only regionally, but large sections of the trading world as well. Sarah Bressan follows with a piece that looks more deeply at some of the external and internal security challenges confronting Europe. Jonathan Fulton then highlights the potential of the Gulf’s economic opportunities in Central Asia: As Gulf states become premier global financial centres, their position as major investors in the new era of geoeconomics has become difficult to ignore.

Next, Raj Shukla unpacks the impact of technology on modern warfare. For her part, Wanjiru Munene asks what lessons our societies have learned from the experience of the pandemic, and whether we are prepared to tackle another such global health emergency. Karuna Kumar closes the loop on this theme with an exposition of how female participation in global politics is changing the landscape, and whether it is succeeding in building a more just system for the future.

The last section starts with Rouben Azizian discussing maritime security in the Indo-Pacific, a geography that may be far from the Caucuses but is relevant in shaping future understandings of conflict, cooperation, and connectivity. Lastly, Reena Pandey’s piece could have either opened or closed this volume—a sort of an ode to the fast gaining bilateral relationship between India and Armenia.

The varied topics and authors carried in this compendium are framed by a globalist agenda. The essays build on the spirit of the Yerevan Dialogue, which is bringing the world’s debates to Armenia in hopes of exploring innovative ideas to create a brighter tomorrow for all.

Read the report here.

• International Affairs
• Multilateralism
• Russia and Eurasia
• Armenia
• connectivity
• Covid-19
• Digitalisation
• Geoeconomics
• global order
• global politics
• great-power competition
• Gulf states
• India-Armenia
• Indo-Pacific
• Iran
• minilateralism
• MULTILATERALISM
• Pandemic
• regionalism
• security
• Technology
• UN Security Council

The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.