The Future of the World Order

The Observer Research Foundation, in collaboration with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the GIGA is organising an invitation-only roundtable on The Future of the World Order.

This roundtable is designed to host Members of Parliament, government officials, and experts from India and Germany to debate and ideate the contours of a post-pandemic world. It will address three key themes:

• UN @ 75: Rethinking Multilateralism

• The India-EU Partnership in the World Order

• US and China: Managing Bipolarity

First Roundtable, 20 May 2020 Multilateralism is in crisis! It is failing and flailing as new developments challenge its writ and its incubators and creators undermine it. The liberal international order finds itself at an inflection point as well, with both the ‘liberal’ and the ‘order’ being reconsidered by many. The coronavirus onslaught has served to underscore the precariousness of global governance, exposing fault-lines within key institutions and among important constituencies. However, despite being at its weakest, people, pundits and practitioners all continue to root for a multilateral order upon which progress is predicated. There is good reason for this – multilateral arrangements remain the most effective mechanisms to respond to the complexity of contemporary challenges we face today. “Resuscitating multilateralism”, therefore, must remain at the top of the global agenda, with like-minded actors such as India and the European Union (EU) charting the way for its reform and revival. Furthermore, as the world’s largest and most diverse democratic unions, it is clear that these geographies will have to carry an additional burden and responsibility as we devise and discover the post-pandemic world order.

It is within this context that the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, convened a virtual India-Germany parliamentary roundtable on The Future of the World Order.

The session saw senior parliamentary representation from both Indian and Germany, with experts and practitioners from government and academia also joining the discussion. The political leaders included Jayant Sinha and Manish Tewari, Members of Parliament from India and Christian Hirte, Member of the Bundestag and Prof. Dr. Mario Voigt, Member of the State Assembly, Thuringia, from Germany.

The roundtable, held under ‘not for attribution’ rules, focused on three key themes:

• Imperative to rethink and reform multilateral arrangements in the wake of the pandemic.

• Evaluating partnerships and coalitions important to navigate the international order disrupted by the strategic rivalry between China and the United States.

• Reimagining the India-EU partnership and the Germany-India collaboration in the days ahead.

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