Qahir Dhanani

Even in times of conflict, global cooperation continues.

In the midst of the war in the Ukraine,

Representatives from the United States, China, Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Russia were sitting in the same room at the ITU continuing to negotiate things like internet protocols or global digital governance.

Did you know that time zones exist because of a multilateral agreement?

Or that green means go because of a multilateral agreement?

Our lives are made better when countries collaborate.

It is the infrastructure of the modern world, and we can't live without it.

But today, we're facing a crisis of trust, trust in the international system.

I see this every day because I work with international organizations and their leaders, trying to make them more effective.

And I'll be the first to admit that talking about multilateralism and effectiveness in the same sentence sounds a bit complicated.

Many think about these organizations and they see a mesh of red tape, or they see endless bureaucracy or political posturing.

They wonder, is there any tangible impact?

It's making people lose faith in international organizations.

I get it.

In our constantly changing world, is it any surprise that the institutions crafted around the geopolitical realities of the end of the Second World War 80 years ago, that those organizations are struggling to keep up?

It's making us ask, is international cooperation even worth it?

Well, I'm here to persuade you that it absolutely is.

I implore you, take another look.

And I give you fair warning that staying in the arena and giving multilateralism another go means one thing for sure.

We cannot continue with business as usual.