Fulfilling its standing as a historical borderland, the Mediterranean Levant continues to stage tensions raised by hegemonic interests. The invasion of Lebanon and the Iranian retaliation are just the earliest ramifications of Israel’s genocidal onslaught in Gaza, whose true consequences are still impossible to fathom. At stake are the continuity of international law, the closing narrative of a parting global order, and the place that history has in store for the universal ideals underpinning them both.

Beyond debates over post-colonial double standards or the hollowing out of notions such as security or freedom, it is clear that the current balances of power in Europe and the US are counterparts of the same process of alienation and de-signification ravaging the planet. With its fragmentary and ambivalent arbitration in the face of escalating wars with global repercussions, the Global South, for its part, has revealed the significant challenges that will determine its capacity for international action in critical junctures: to establish itself as a universe of its own meaning, even in its enormous contrasts, and to be capable of putting forward a more united and equitable alternative.

·What effects are the Israel-Palestine and Russia-Ukraine conflicts having on the Western multilateral scenario and the realignment of geopolitical forces in the Global South?
·What are the outlooks left by the great electoral cycle of 2024, with epicentres in the US, India, South Africa, the UK, France, Iran, Argentina, the EU, etc.?

The melancholy of a civil society that remains demobilised in the face of existential climate threats or while genocide is live-streamed uninterrupted should force us all to reflect. Beyond recent social breakthroughs or technological leaps, woke mentalities and digital ephemerality have weakened the engagement of social activism, rendering it incapable of oversight and unable to tackle universal causes in significant ways.

In a world shielded in its own complexity, still failing to unleash the tides of change, this vacuum paves the way for powerful interests and the reactionary waves their politics nurture. Now that mobilisation is more necessary than ever, and in the face of escalating political crackdowns on protesters, it is essential to overcome the fragmentation and ineffectiveness afflicting civil society. Otherwise, values such as its “spontaneity and organicity” will continue acting like Trojan horses, fuelling a drift with global consequences.

·What lessons can we draw from recent pro-Palestinian mobilisations and their interactions with other global movements, such as the climate or anti-racist campaigns?
·Which strategic considerations and points of action can catalyse the integration of these mobilisations into global benchmarks for change and establish them as alternatives?

By tackling its capacity to impact major crises and to promote its development agendas, this period of existential questioning manifests too in the “Summit of the Future”. Driven by a refounding vision, this meeting looked at the UN in its darkest hours, marked by its grandiloquence as much as by its own shortcomings. In spite of lukewarm language and disagreements on the scope, the Pact of the Future is only the first chapter of a reform that may take decades. It revealed a greater will of cooperation by almost every member and the energy and value the Global South still puts into reviving UN multilateralism, but not how much longer this can stand the erosion of its legitimacy.

Faced with a decisive global landscape and marked by threats of war, economic inequalities, climate collapse, technological deregulation and the breakdown of social pacts, the United Nations stands as two opposing narratives: That of an endorsing system of power and accumulation that is only changing cycles, or that of the last bastion of universalism, capable of transforming hope into a true project of global governance.

·How can the Global South further its push for UNSC democratisation and international financial reform? What prospects are there for the promised inclusion of non-state actors?
·What critical assessment can be made of other configurations, such as the failed G77 or the current EU/CELAC/G20/BRICS+/ASEAN/etc., and the emergence of new proposals?

A quick glance at the international picture suggests that the cycle of reactionary experiments is set to continue, underpinned by collective frustration and threatening consolidated cooperation and development initiatives. This scenario will test the people’s capacity to adapt their aspirations and values to the viability of their ways of life, as well as the capacity of institutions to mediate this process, consolidating instances of participation and dialogue that transcend old mindsets.

·In which strategic settings and with which allies can recent institutional shocks be harnessed to promote urgent political change?
·How can emerging and consolidated democracies in Europe and the Global South coordinate and learn from each other’s experiences and institutional models?