{"id":82476,"date":"2025-10-02T07:17:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T05:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/idees-dactualitat-la-fi-del-multilateralisme\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T11:30:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T09:30:29","slug":"idees-dactualitat-la-fi-del-multilateralisme","status":"publish","type":"newspaper","link":"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/idees-dactualitat-la-fi-del-multilateralisme\/","title":{"rendered":"Idees d’actualitat – The end of multilateralism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Donald Trump declared multilateralism dead in his recent speech to the UN General Assembly. Since returning to power in January, the US president has not ceased his attacks on the global governance system that is celebrating its 80th anniversary. He has withdrawn (again) from key United Nations institutions, cut $1 billion in funding and fired more than 1,000 State Department employees who work closely with the UN, most notably through USAID, the agency responsible for distributing most of the US’s non-military foreign aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his diatribe, Trump ridiculed the UN’s peace-making role \u2013 without mentioning his government’s veto power to block agreements and impose its position on Palestine on other countries \u2013 while claiming to have ended seven wars. He also accused the institution of financing the entry of illegal migrants into the US and blamed it for ruining the world with what he called the climate change scam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, the US administration has expressed, at least rhetorically, its desire to remain committed to the UN. At his Senate hearing this summer, Michael Waltz, the nominee for US Permanent Representative to the United Nations, outlined his vision for a more focused and reformed institution. A UN focused on conflict prevention and resolution with a new approach to peacekeeping. A UN that offers transparency in its budget, combats anti-Semitism and counters China’s influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the UN has yet to decide on a viable strategy for dealing with the US’s change of course on global governance. During Trump’s first term, UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres attempted to prevent a collapse of the system by establishing personal ties with the US president and practising strategic patience. Now, through the Iniciative UN80<\/a>, Guterres is determined to undertake a series of far-reaching reforms to streamline the UN bureaucracy and improve its effectiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, countries such as China and Russia welcome the decline of the United States’ presence at the UN and may seek to fill this leadership vacuum by stepping up initiatives to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation<\/a> (SCO). At the same time, the gradual inclusion of new members in the BRICS could enable them to develop more coherent and effective political and economic tools. We can foresee that within this more fractured and fragmented system, non-Western alternatives to the UN will become more powerful and will be able to establish new norms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems that from now on, US geopolitical strategy will have only one compass: the economic and security interests of the United States. Donald Trump is dismantling a governance structure that was fundamental to the agenda of peace and prosperity after the Second World War. This architecture, despite being conceived by the United States as a project to power and organise the world according to its interests, no longer seems compatible with the hyper-realist approach \u2013 absolute priority to national interests, rejection of multilateralism, Hobbesian view of international relations \u2013 that Trump applies to all areas of his foreign policy \u2013 trade policy, conflict management, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This occurs in a context of structural power asymmetry in which the United States maintains disproportionate economic coercion, capable of inflicting losses of 5.8% of GDP on China and 8.6% on the European Union, while its vulnerability is limited (3%) according to a study<\/a> published by the Real Instituto Elcano. This is partly due to financial dominance over manufacturing: American power in the global financial system (80%-90% in key segments) exceeds Chinese dominance in manufacturing (30% globally).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, the transition from a unipolar order to a fragmented system will entail substantial systemic costs, which will also be distributed asymmetrically. The European Union faces the dilemma of maintaining its transatlantic vassalage or assuming the costs of transitioning to strategic autonomy. For its part, China must accept short-term losses while building alternative capabilities. The rationality of confrontation strategies in zero-sum games contrasts with the absolute losses for all participants, suggesting that cooperation will only emerge in the face of existential crises or after the exhaustion of confrontation strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding our immediate environment \u2013 Europe \u2013 how can we survive in this scenario? For a long time, Europeans have maintained the illusion that they were the future of the world, and that their order consisted of ever deeper multilateral cooperation. But it turns out that today’s world increasingly looks like late 19th-century Europe, where different empires competed for hegemony. So, instead of being the future, Europe is now the exception, and to survive as we know it today, it must face the challenge of becoming a great power while remaining faithful to the defence of the rule of law, welfare, and democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the problem goes beyond Trump. The genocide in Gaza, recognised by General Assembly resolutions, multiple humanitarian agencies, and the International Court of Justice, which has issued precautionary measures against Israel, has stressed the inefficacity of the United Nations and the international community. Gaza exposes the central dilemma of contemporary multilateralism, where it becomes impossible to defend an international order based on rules when those who designed them and promised to apply them are the first to block their implementation. Disaffection with the UN is increasing. For millions in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, the organisation has become an irrelevant actor, unable of guaranteeing rights or stopping atrocities, and paying less and less attention to populations with growing weight on the global stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the UN is unable to guarantee justice in such a flagrant case of violation of international law and international humanitarian law as is happening in Gaza, its crisis can only worsen. And in this dilemma, either we move towards a profound reform that democratises the Security Council and strengthens human rights protection mechanisms, or the UN will be reduced to an empty ritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current crisis is not only institutional, but also moral, and the question is whether the UN can survive as a legitimate institution in a multipolar and increasingly authoritarian world. The answer will depend on the political will to reform its power structures and the ability of international civil society to demand a truly inclusive system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Photography: Donald Trump delivers a speech to the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, September 2025. Public domain.<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria Fari\u00f1a and Arnau Giralt, trainees at the CETC, have participated to this issue of Idees d’actualitat<\/em>.<\/sub><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump declared multilateralism dead in his recent speech to the UN General Assembly. Since returning to power in January, the US president has not ceased his attacks on the global governance system that is celebrating its 80th anniversary. He has withdrawn (again) from key United Nations institutions, cut $1 billion in funding and fired more than 1,000 State Department employees who work closely with the UN, most notably through USAID, the agency responsible for distributing most of the US’s non-military foreign aid. In his diatribe, Trump ridiculed the UN’s peace-making role \u2013 without mentioning his government’s veto power to\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":82457,"template":"","category_newspaper":[634],"segment":[],"subject":[],"class_list":["post-82476","newspaper","type-newspaper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category_newspaper-634"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIdees d'actualitat - The end of multilateralism? – IDEES<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/revistaidees.cat\/en\/analisis\/diari-de-les-idees\/idees-dactualitat-la-fi-del-multilateralisme\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Idees d'actualitat - The end of multilateralism? – IDEES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Donald Trump declared multilateralism dead in his recent speech to the UN General Assembly. 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