Dialogue - Katoikos

China’s Global Governance Initiative: Why the debate matters more than the blueprint

The debate over China’s Global Governance Initiative (GGI) arrives at a moment when questions surrounding global governance are becoming increasingly difficult to avoid. Institutions established in the aftermath of the Second World War are confronting pressures they were never designed to manage: shifting economic power, technological disruption, climate change, geopolitical fragmentation and growing dissatisfaction with…

Make Things Happen; Don’t Wonder What Happened

In my long (40 years), undistinguished career in marketing communications and journalism, I have had a chance to work with some very good and some not very good bosses. However, there was one in particular, who had common sense without being too common. He taught me a valuable lesson. In describing success, he said, “There…

The crisis in the Middle East and what it reveals about global order

There is an increasing sense that the war in the Middle East is revealing more than a crisis in the regional order. The latest escalation, where the United States and Israel attacked Iran, which in turn attacked the Gulf states, is being considered not only for the various and immediate consequences. It is also illustrative…

Why Middle Powers matter in a fragmenting world

The international system appears to be entering a period of profound uncertainty. Geopolitical rivalry is intensifying, confidence in global institutions is weakening and rules that once appeared relatively settled are now being questioned with increasing frequency. In such an environment, the conversation about the role of so-called “middle powers” becomes more important than it might…

What is the future of the G20 in a fragmenting world?

The international system today does not appear to be collapsing in any dramatic or spectacular sense. Institutions still exist. Forums continue to convene. Rules remain written down. Yet there is a growing sense that something more subtle, and perhaps more consequential, is underway. The political consensus that once gave multilateral cooperation its coherence is thinning….

Venezuela and the quiet unravelling of Global Order

The United States’ military operation against Venezuela in early January has been widely reported as a dramatic episode: air strikes on strategic sites, the forced removal of President Nicolás Maduro and the most direct US intervention in Latin America in decades. But to treat the event as merely another regional crisis is to fundamentally misunderstand…

Day of judgement for the Islamic Republic?

Georgios Kostakos and Manan Shah
World , Dialogue , Society , What is happening?
11 January, 2026

Iran is in flames, with thousands of people protesting on the streets of cities around the country. Ostensibly, it is the drastic devaluation of Iran’s currency (the rial has fallen to a historic low of more than 1 million rials to 1 USD) and high inflation that set off the protests on 28 December 2025,…

Dissecting China’s Global Governance Initiative: Reflections on a System Caught Between Inertia and Transformation

The international system today carries the feel of an era that has outlived its own assumptions. Institutions built with the optimism of 1945 continue to stand, yet their foundations no longer align with the world taking shape around them. The gravitational pull that once held the system together, its shared purpose, its post-war coherence, has…

Curry, Ice Cream, and Diplomacy: How a Small Chinese City Is Serving Up the Shanghai Spirit

Keyu Guo
Multiculturalism , World , China , Analysis
1 September, 2025

As the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) prepares to hold its summit in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin, one phrase is back in focus: the “Shanghai Spirit.” This regional bloc was founded in 2001 by China, Russia, and several Central Asian nations to promote regional security and mutual trust. Today, with 10 member countries that…

No Reason to Worry, AI Has Everything Under Control!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly moved from the realm of science fiction to an integral part of our daily lives and to a driving force of technological advancement. Starting from the basic benefits that “smart” digital assistants have offered the previous years, now AI looks like it constitutes the shaping force of the future. The…