The multilateral system faces extraordinary threats but shows some reassuring signs of resilience, says Richard Gowan in his first blog post for CPR. Policy makers need to work out how to make the best of a poor deal making environment and hedge against further shocks to multilateral cooperation.
Five factors have emerged as key to the success of UN high-level panels: the potential to address an unmet demand; balanced composition; quality of product; management of politics; and follow-up.