This is a common space.eU podcast.

From the city of the Hague, welcome to Global Europe Unpact, a podcast about Europe's engagement

with its neighborhood and the wider world. I think the European Union should see this as an

opportunity to really speak with one very strong voice.

Hello and welcome to Global Europe Unpacked,

the podcast that looks at the emerging trends facing the European continent

and the growing ambition for the EU to become a global or geopolitical power.

I am your host, Will Murray,

and in today's episode we're going to be looking at multilateralism.

Is it in crisis

as people are often saying? And if so, is there anything that we can do about it? Shortly, I'll

be speaking on this topic with Stephanie Liechtenstein, the web editor-in-chief of the journal, Security

and Human Rights Monitor. Based in Vienna, Stephanie has years of experience writing about

international organizations and multilateral diplomacy,

and worked for six years in various positions at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

But first, here's my colleague Nina with some background.

The new buzzword in international diplomacy is multilateralism, or to put it simply, countries working together for a common goal. Nowhere is the concept of multilateralism embraced so firmly as in the Brussels corridors of power,

where European Union leaders speak of it with the fervor of a religious belief.

But does multilateralism really work?

Or does the old diplomatic maxim that countries do not have friends, just interests,

better reflect the reality of how international relations are conducted?

In many ways, the European Union sees itself as a model of multilateral cooperation,

...