Beyond Great Powers: Middle Power Paths to Resilient Multilateralism

Abstract

Set amidst growing global challenges and great power politics, this article asks how middle powers might best promote global collective action. Adopting a historical approach, it explores four case studies on middle power multilateralism in (1) post-1974 UN New International Economic Order; (2) post-1989 Bretton Woods institutions; (3) post-1992 European Union expansion; and (4) post-2003 UN South-South cooperation. These inform a policy framework and an ensuing alternative termed "resilient multilateralism." Adopting a foreign policy standpoint, this alternative entails principles on context specificity, complementarity, consensus building, and non-confrontation. By opening space for global action, it offers a timely approach to countering future shocks and coordination failures-whether wrought through nature or through hands of our own.

Understanding resilience in sustainable development: Rallying call or siren song?

“…Offering Resilience may ironically bear opportunities thanks to its ambiguous, non-uniform use. This is set amidst rising geopolitical tensions, which endanger prospects for sustainable development and climate action (Park, 2022). In such contexts, even a shallow normative consensus on the value or need for resilience adds a vital starting point for global action.…”

Building resilience knowledge for sustainable development: Insights from development studies

“…Resilience may ironically bear opportunities thanks to its ambiguous, non-uniform use. This is set amidst rising geopolitical tensions, which endanger prospects for sustainable development and climate action (Kim and Lee 2022;Park 2022). In such contexts, even a shallow normative consensus on the value or need for resilience opens vital space for global action.…”

European Union Foreign Policy

“…The characteristics of the foreign policy of a middle power are based on multilateralism, support for International Organizations (IOs), creation of consensus and bridges between different parties, and diplomacy based on technical knowledge (Laatikainen 2006;Park 2022). Middle powers use their intermediary material capacities and their positions in the IOs as a way of building legitimacy.…”