Description
States and international organisations approach the concept and practice of multilateralism in divergent and at times conflicting manners which can greatly impact the application of multilateralism as a means for addressing commonly shared threats to peace and stability. As we enter an era of increasingly complex and mobile crises it is of importance to examine how concepts of multilateralism are being approached by international actors and, what the implications of this proliferation of multilateralism means for cooperation and crisis management in the future. In this research I argue that the proliferation of approaches to multilateralism evidenced in today’s international system leads to a divergence in how states actualize multilateralism, how they choose to engage or disengage with the practice and how this impacts interactions with other states. I examine this emergent area of study through an analysis of the prevailing trends in multilateralism seen in global powers, drawing from interviews with state and international organizations to supplement this analysis. I argue that this conceptual proliferation has manifested in the emergence of ‘factional multilateral networks’ groupings of similarly aligned actors and in the course of this research examine the intricacies of these networks and also the implications of their presence in world politics in an era of increasingly complex crises.
