A Research Collaboration between Oxford Martin School programme: ‘Changing Global Orders’ and United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies
“As we consider ways to make multilateral institutions more effective, and to meet the current and future challenges facing people and planet, we need the perspectives and engagement of local and regional authorities.”
(Statement by UN Secretary General Guterres at the launch of a new Advisory Group on Local and Regional Governments. United Nations, 6 October 2023)
What spaces do regional institutions/actors occupy in the management of shocks and crises and in the debates about the creation of new international orders?
Shocks to the international system are regular occurrences that can seriously disrupt prevailing international orders, yet when they happen nobody seems prepared. One only needs to think of recent events in the Middle East and Ukraine, the effects of the global pandemic, or the ongoing climate crisis to illustrate the point. So much energy goes into designing and improving global governance structures, that this absence of preparation seems strange. This workshop will explore the evolving nexus between global or ‘universal’ and regional institutions and argue that regional bodies are vital and often under-recognised elements in shock management and mitigation. Their past, present and future contributions to designing new global orders and finding solutions to pressing global problems need to be taken more seriously.
Participation in this workshop is by invitation only.
