Economic cooperation in the emerging world order

Economic cooperation in the emerging world order

Global economic cooperation is needed more than ever, yet multilateralism is under acute strain. The global financial system requires coordination to respond to shocks and meet structural challenges, while the fight against poverty is stalling and inequality rising. Actions on climate change and the clean energy transition cannot succeed through domestic policy alone. Yet on the world stage, great power competition between the US and China, a proliferation of hot conflicts and the weaponisation of economic tools confront middle powers - including the UK - with apparently zero-sum choices: pursue a narrow version of national interest or take leaps of faith to chart new paths of cooperation.

This day-long workshop, hosted by the Ditchley Foundation in partnership with the New Economics Foundation, brings together economists, policymakers, think tanks and civil society to consider the essential framing questions for the UK as it seeks to navigate its 2027 G20 Presidency and find leadership roles in effective global economic cooperation. What are the greatest shared challenges of economic coordination - from climate change to growing debt burdens? How can existing institutions, including the UN, the G20 and international financial institutions, can be used or reformed to meet them? And how can the UK government bring an increasingly divided public?

This workshop is the first of two Ditchley-NEF sessions exploring the UK's role in a changing multilateral and global economic governance landscape.