Global cooperation stagnates due to geopolitical tensions, while climate finance, trade and innovation offer hope, says the World Economic Forum (WEF) in a new report released this week.
The WEF Global Cooperation Barometer 2025, developed in collaboration with management consultancy McKinsey & Company, highlights that global cooperation is at a turning point. The report’s analysis reveals that after experiencing a positive trend for a decade and surpassing pre-pandemic levels, overall cooperation has stagnated.
This development is explained by the marked decline of the barometer’s “peace and security” pillar over the past seven years, due to growing geopolitical tensions and competition which have significantly eroded global collective security. Last year, conflicts, and associated humanitarian crises, reached record levels, driven by crises such as those in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan, among others.
As the largely stable cooperative order that defined the post-Cold War period gives way to a more fragmented landscape, solutions to pressing challenges, from climate action to technology governance, remain interdependent. Despite global security crises, the new findings indicate that collaboration has continued in various areas, including vaccine distribution, scientific research, renewable energy development, and many others, providing models of cooperation future, according to the report.
The barometer uses 41 indicators to measure the current state of global cooperation. It aims to offer leaders a tool allowing them to better understand the contours of cooperation in the broad sense, based on five pillars: trade and capital flows, innovation and technology, climate and natural capital. , health and well-being, as well as peace and security.
In its second edition, the barometer draws on new data to provide an updated picture of the global cooperation landscape, with a particular focus on the impact of the new technological era.
“This barometer is released at a time of great global instability, where many new governments are developing plans for the coming year and their mandates,” said Børge Brende, president and CEO of the World Economic Forum.
“The barometer shows that cooperation is not only essential to address crucial economic, environmental and technological challenges, but is possible in the current tumultuous context,” he added.
With MAP
