ENSURED

New ENSURED research by Henning Schmidtke and @stephofmann.bsky.social shows: global governance is here to stay. But increasingly, it’s shifting toward alternative modes of cooperation.

www.ensuredeurope.eu/publications/global-governance-transformation

@ensured.bsky.social

Pathways for Global Governance Transformation: Evidence from 15 Case Studies - Research Report | ENSURED Despite global turmoil, states still want to cooperate - the question is how. What forms of global governance are currently at play and why this “variable geometry” has implications for our understand...

📄📢 ENSURED report!

Global cooperation isn’t disappearing — it’s transforming. As IOs face pressure, governance is shifting via minilateral, regional & alternative formats.

🔀 Henning Schmidtke & Stephanie Hofmann (@eui-eu.bsky.social) show how this “variable geometry” reshapes global governance.

✨ The ENSURED policy brief that brings it all together ✨

As geopolitical tensions rise, the EU faces strategic choices. What does it take to defend global cooperation?

🔗 Answers in @stevenblockmans.bsky.social's new policy brief: www.ensuredeurope.eu/publications...

@ceps.eu

🖥️ Webinar tomorrow!

Join ENSURED researcher @ofernandezfdez.bsky.social (@fasosmaastricht.bsky.social) for a look at COVID-19, the World Health Organization, and the future of health governance.

Don't miss it:
📅 26 February | ⏰ 15–16 CET | 📍 Online

🎟 Register: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

"A Particularly Worrying Message": What Omnibus I Signals About the EU's Global Role - Expert Blog | ENSURED To boost EU competitiveness through regulatory simplification, the European Commission adopted the Omnibus I package, amending key sustainability directives. While framed as a move to reduce burdens, ...

🔴 The #Omnibus I package was adopted today – confirming the EU’s worrying U-turn on its ambition to be a standard-setter at a time of escalating climate & human rights crises.

Read more from @fidh-official.bsky.social's Maddalena Neglia in @ensured.bsky.social: www.ensuredeurope.eu/blog/eu-omni...

Trump’s defiance of international institutions Tim Heinkelmann-Wild explores three lessons for institutions facing renewed contestation from the second Trump administration

This blog was originally posted in International Affairs.

Check it out: medium.com/internationa...

🆕 ENSURED Blog!

Trump’s renewed withdrawals from international institutions echo Trump 1.0. A new ENSURED blog by @heinkelmann-wild.bsky.social distils 3 lessons for defending IOs.

🔑 takeaway: Western powers & the EU must preserve the rules-based order!

📝: www.ensuredeurope.eu/blog/three-l...

What does "grabbing Greenland" mean for NATO and the EU?

With solidarity potentially fading in both organisations, STEVEN BLOCKMANS (stevenblockmans.bsky.social) suggests a European security framework that complements existing alliances.

verfassungsblog.de/greenland-na...

🌎 Keen to learn about ongoing developments in global migration governance? Join next week's
@ensured.bsky.social's 'In Conversation with Civil Society' webinar series, organised by @civicusalliance.bsky.social

📅 11 February 2026
⏰ 14:00-15.30 CET
📍 Online

👉 www.ensuredeurope.eu/news-events/...

📍🇮🇳 ENSURED in New Delhi | Day 2

ENSURED researchers visited the India International Centre, a hub for global dialogue, to discuss how global governance can strengthen international cooperation.

Thanks to Jayati Srivastava, JNU students & IIC colleagues for the great exchange! 🙏

Governing in Complexity: Assessing the Quality of Global Governance Across 15 Case Studies - Research Report | ENSURED In today's world, governance complexity has become the rule. Drawing on the 15 ENSURED case studies, this report explores growing governance complexity and its effect on international cooperation.

🚨🕸️ As global governance grows more complex, what factors determine how well international cooperation works?

Read the latest ENSURED report “Governing in Complexity” by Henning Schmidtke & Stephanie Hofmann to find out!

@eui-schuman.bsky.social @fsv.charlesuni.cuni.cz

✈️🇮🇳 Last stop: New Delhi!

Team ENSURED is wrapping up our Asia trip at Jawaharlal Nehru University with a workshop on reforming global governance. We enjoyed great discussions on climate finance, health, migration & more.

Stay tuned for Day 2!
@hdijkstra.bsky.social @claraweinhardt.bsky.social

Beyond Obstruction: Rethinking the Far Right and Climate Governance - Expert Blog | ENSURED Far-right governments are often assumed to obstruct global climate cooperation – but the reality is far more complex. When and why do some far-right leaders engage with international environmental ins...

Climate action 🤝 political left? Not necessarily.

In a new ENSURED blog, @ninahall.bsky.social (@johnshopkinssais.bsky.social) challenges the idea that the far right is inherently anti-environment. In reality, Hall argues, it's far more complex.

What does this mean for environmental governance?
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🇨🇳✈️ From Tokyo to Beijing!

Team ENSURED arrived in China to discuss the future of global trade governance. At UIBE, researchers from Europe & China exchanged on WTO reform, EU-China trade cooperation, and China’s role in global governance.

@hdijkstra.bsky.social @claraweinhardt.bsky.social

🇯🇵 ENSURED in Tokyo!

Last week, ENSURED researchers @hdijkstra.bsky.social & Michal Parizek exchanged with Japanese policy institutions & Hitotsubashi University.

The topic: ENSURED's findings on the future of global governance.

Stay tuned for more ENSURED outreach, including in 🇨🇳 & 🇮🇳 !

Reforming Global Institutions in an Era of Geopolitical Strain: Evidence from 15 Case Studies - Research Report | ENSURED Global governance is often described as being in crisis, yet demand for effective international cooperation has never been higher. Drawing on ENSURED's 15 case studies, this report asks: How can inter...

🏛️New report on global institutions!

Drawing on ENSURED's 15 case studies, our latest research by @hdijkstra.bsky.social shows that reform is far from straightforward, but there remains unexploited potential.

@tsommerer.bsky.social @claraweinhardt.bsky.social @fasosmaastricht.bsky.social
👇

Events: Presenting ENSURED Research in Asia - Event | ENSURED ENSURED researchers will be presenting the findings of their research at dissemination seminars across Asia.

‍🛣️ENSURED is hitting the road!

Our researchers are kicking the year off by presenting their findings at seminars across Asia.

This January, they will visit:
🇯🇵 Japan
🇨🇳 China
🇮🇳 India

More info 👇
And we’ll be posting updates across our socials, so be sure to follow along!

In Conversation with Civil Society: Reforming the Global Health Regime - Event Summary | ENSURED This webinar brought together researchers and civil society practitioners to discuss the implications of the newly adopted World Health Organization (WHO) Pandemic Agreement and the future of global h...

📽️ICYMI: ENSURED x CIVICUS Webinar

In this 2️⃣nd installment of our webinar series, 4️⃣panellists explored the future of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. A tentative win for multilateralism, it’s still unratified due to debates over Pathogen Access & Benefit-Sharing (PABS).

Watch it here: ⬇️

Robust, Effective, and Democratic Global Governance for a World in Transition: Evidence From the ENSURED Expert Survey - Research Report | ENSURED Based on the ENSURED Expert Survey, this report offers a global assessment of how 110 international organisations (IOs) are coping in today’s turbulent world.

🚨🗣️ ENSURED Expert Survey

New research by Soetkin Verhaegen, @hdijkstra.bsky.social & @tsommerer.bsky.social offers a global assessment (based on a survey of 763 experts) of how 110 international organisations are coping in today’s turbulent world.

@maastrichtu.bsky.social @unipotsdam.bsky.social
👇

Robust, Effective, and Democratic Global Governance for a World in Transition: Evidence From the ENSURED Expert Survey - Research Report | ENSURED Based on the ENSURED Expert Survey, this report offers a global assessment of how 110 international organisations (IOs) are coping in today’s turbulent world.

NEW PUBLICATION: In August-September 2025 we surveyed 763 experts in 48 countries on the challenges for Global Governance. This @ensured.bsky.social report has the results 🌐

1️⃣ Expert scores on 110 IOs
2️⃣ Forecasting of challenges
3️⃣ Conjoint on IO survival

www.ensuredeurope.eu/publications...

Actorness in Different Shades? Comparing EU External Action Across Global Governance Institutions - Research Report | ENSURED How strong an international actor is the EU in a shifting geopolitical landscape? Findings show significant variation in actorness across policy areas and highlight that different forms of EU support ...

🚨 REPORT | "Actorness in Different Shades? Comparing EU External Action Across Global Governance Institutions"

Drawing on 15 ENSURED case studies, @franziskapetri.bsky.social, @stevenblockmans.bsky.social, Edith Drieskens & @cerenjilan.bsky.social analyse how the EU performs across 5 policy areas.

“Youth Should Lead the Way”: Lessons from Ten Years of Programming on the Youth, Peace and Security Agenda - Expert Blog | ENSURED Ten years after Resolution 2250 launched the Youth, Peace and Security (YPS) agenda, youth-led peacebuilding has proven its transformative potential across diverse contexts. To fulfil this agenda’s pr...

Today marks 10 years of Resolution 2250 on the Youth, Peace and Security agenda. Where are we at now?

A new ENSURED blog takes stock of progress on youth-led peacebuilding and outlines what will be needed for the decade ahead.

🔗 www.ensuredeurope.eu/blog/ten-yea...

@unu-cpr.bsky.social

Anchoring Global AI Governance: How the EU Can Leverage the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence - Policy Brief | ENSURED As AI evolves faster than regulation, the Council of Europe’s new treaty offers a rare chance to anchor technology in democratic values. How can the EU turn this promise into global leadership on trus...

How can the EU turn the CoE’s new AI Framework Convention into a global standard?

ENSURED’s latest policy brief by Wade Hoxtell (@gppi.bsky.social) outlines four ways to solidify the EU's leadership in AI governance:

✨ratify the treaty
🛠️shape the CoP
🌍build up capacity
🤝align EU digital policy

Publications | ENSURED: Shaping Cooperation for a World in Transition

Curious about the state of global governance?

Read more ENSURED research, including our 15 case studies into different policy areas.

🔗: www.ensuredeurope.eu/publications

📌 Overall:

Multilateral institutions have proven institutionally robust —stable decision-making, no democratic collapse — but they face growing headwinds. Stagnating openness and rising autocratisation pose risks for the future of global governance.

🏛️ Domestic regime type:

IOs with more democratic memberships tend to perform better and maintain greater access for non-state actors. Where autocratisation rises, we see early signs of declining output and stalled openness — though major rollbacks have not yet appeared.

⚖️ Effectiveness vs inclusiveness?

The data show no strong trade-off, despite what some have feared. More open IOs are not less effective. Instead, performance and openness often move together, shaped by similar structural conditions — particularly the democratic composition of IO membership.

🌐 IO openness:

The rapid expansion of non-state access seen from 1990–2010 has largely stalled. Since 2010, access rules have stayed almost unchanged — no major expansion, but also no clear rollback, despite rising autocratisation.

📊 Output performance:

IO decision-making has remained relatively stable since 2010, with only modest drops during COVID-19 and signs of recovery after 2020. Some IOs show modest upward trends, whereas others decline.

Between Stability and Stagnation: The Performance and Openness of International Organisations in a Changing Global Order - Research Report | ENSURED As global governance faces rising geopolitical pressures, understanding how IOs are performing is increasingly vital. Drawing on two updated datasets, this report maps how IO effectiveness and inclusi...

New ENSURED report from @tsommerer.bsky.social &
@haeunchoi.bsky.social examines how IOs are performing under rising geopolitical and democratic strain.

Based on 2 updated datasets (1980–2023), it offers a system-wide view of IO performance and openness in today’s global order.

What they found 👇