The Future of Global Governance: BRICS, AI, Middle Powers & World Order — Miles Kahler

In this episode, Professor Miles Kahler discusses the future of global governance in an era of intensifying geopolitical rivalry, shifting power balances, and growing challenges to the post-1945 international order. Drawing on his recent paper, Global Governance in the Twenty-First Century: Sustain, Reform, Transform, he examines whether existing international institutions can still adapt or whether new forms of cooperation will be required.

Professor Miles Kahler is Research Professor-in-Residence and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the School of International Service, American University. He is also a Non-resident Scholar in the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His research focuses on international institutions, global governance, international political economy, regionalism, and the evolution of the international order. He has written extensively on global governance, international cooperation, and the political economy of globalisation, and is widely recognised as one of the leading scholars in the study of international institutions.

Selected Publications

Global governance in the twenty-first century: Sustain, reform, transformFrom Complex Interdependence to Complex GovernanceGlobal governance in the twenty-first century: End of the Bretton Woods moment?The Bretton Woods Moment: Hierarchies, Networks, and Markets in the Long Twentieth CenturyGlobal governance: Three futures

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

01:58 When Are Institutional Reforms No Longer Enough?

05:16 Can Middle Powers Shape a New Global Order?

10:21 Consensus-Based Multilateralism vs. Plurilateral Cooperation

16:15 Why Is BRICS Less Coherent Than Expected in Global Governance?

22:20 Why Do Countries Join BRICS? Choice or Necessity?

29:19 How Technology and Supply Chains Are Redefining Spheres of Influence