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editorial

Geneva international:

multilateralism 2.0

“There exist five continents – Europe, city’s first country representations. including transnational and
America, Africa, Asia and Geneva.” From just a few dozen missions in intranational actors. For example,
So said the great 19 century French 1919, today Geneva is a multilateral the recently established Forum
th
diplomat Prince Talleyrand during colossus, with more than 190 of Mayors is the start of one very
the Congress of Vienna, 1815. Over permanent missions, several Corps of different type of multilateralism:
150 years later, Geneva was still a Ambassadors, 450 NGOs, numerous a “Multilateralism 2.0”, if you will.
powerful force for multilateralism academic and research institutions, Some of these transnational forms
- “Geneva is not Eurocentristic, it and a broadly-represented private of multilateralism have existed for
is GLOBAL” was the phrase from sector. a long time, as we will explore in
the UNOG rostrum in the 1990s. the next issue, tracing the origins
This was not just a bold statement All of these have given rise to a fertile of some back to 1820; the League of
it was what Geneva became over eco-system for international research Nations merely gave it a different,
the next few decades, to the point and decision-making. While some inter-governmental framework.
that, in 2017, previous UNOG NGOs. and even the UN, may be set Today, we can see that additional
Director-General Michael Møller back by the knock-on effects of the frameworks will be indispensable
could say, ”Everything that is pandemic, there are new platforms if we want to reach our goals of
done here in Geneva has a direct for coordination, such as The Geneva peace and survival, and especially
impact on every person on this Peacebuilding Platform (GPP), The during events where governmental
planet in any 24 hour period.” Geneva Disarmament Platform, The structures may not be sufficient.
Geneva Humanitarian Connector,
Of course, there are other cities and, just recently established The Clearly, the role of Geneva is vital to
noted for their multilateralist Geneva Cities Hub. There are also this. It was the site of multilateralism
achievements: New York and Oslo to futuristic Geneva platforms, such long before the League, and will
name but two, but Geneva remains as the Swiss Digital Initiative always remain unique. Its rich
the world capital of multilateralism. and the Geneva Science and history is essential to understanding
It has a unique concentration of Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA), how to proceed in future. This is why
global players active in a broad full of forward-looking start-ups. we have dedicated a part of this issue
spectrum of fields from every region to this topic, inviting you to flip the
® of the world. The synergies between Geneva-based multilateralism is not pages of the past and to look into the
these players makes Geneva the ideal only growing, but also transforming future of a new Geneva International
place for addressing today’s many with different communities and with a new multilateralism.
complex global challenges. corporations as part of this new
multilateralism. This is partly Evelina Rioukhina
Multilateralism in Geneva had because the pandemic and climate
its first major flowering with the change have both shown us we
creation of the League of Nations in need more diverse multilateralism,
1919, leading to the opening of the not just limited to nations but

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