Introduction: International Cooperation Under Order Transition

Effective Multilateralism makes the case for a new approach to understand and explain international cooperation and collective action. Existing theories of cooperation assume a stable geo-political order, led by countries with a shared conception of the scope and modalities of global cooperation. These assumptions are no longer justified. The Western liberal order is in a protracted process of transition.1 There is no new hegemon that would be able (or willing) to replace the United States and to push for a redesign of the global governance architecture from scratch. Emerging powers are engaging in global cooperation, in their own way and on their own terms. To summarize, while there seems to be a growing demand for effective global cooperation, there are currently no universally applicable concepts with which to analyse it, nor is there a common language with which to describe it.