Understanding Established and Rising Powers on Their Own Terms

The participants in the conference, entitled “Negotiating the Future: Visions of Global Order,” exchanged ideas on the world views, international diplomacy efforts, and negotiation behaviours of established and rising powers including the United States, Russia, and the EU as well as Brazil, India, and China.

In their opening statements, the speakers praised the GIGA as an outstandingly appropriate setting for this occasion given the institute’s in-depth knowledge of the regions and of cross-cutting topics. The civil war in Syria and climate change, among other issues, were noted as contemporary global challenges that research can help solve.

The conference, which took place at the GIGA in Hamburg, Germany at the beginning of December 2015, aimed to analyse globally relevant phenomena from a comparative, historical, and practitioner-based perspective. According to one speaker, today’s international diplomacy has to deal with a baffling array of phenomena including power diffusion, new players, and the multiplication of transnational and non-state actors.

Helping make sense of today’s increasingly precarious sociopolitical stability, finding common ground in negotiations, bringing counterarguments to the attention of decision makers, and, above all, understanding not only the US and the EU but also other key players on their own terms were among the tasks participants identified and will continue working on.

A complete list of the conference participants and more information on the event can be found here. The GIGA Global Transitions Conference series will resume in 2016.