Daryl Swanepoel is the Chief Executive Officer of the Inclusive Society Institute and a Research Fellow at the School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University. He is a leading voice on global governance reform. With a career spanning politics, business, and academia, he has served as a parliamentarian, strategist, and educator. His current focus includes work on reimagining the UN system, challenging entrenched power dynamics, and driving inclusive solutions.
Dialogue can reduce the risk of miscalculation, but Washington and Beijing are building rival AI ecosystems that will increasingly force other countries to make practical choices. President Donald Trump recently distilled the strategic pressure shaping the artificial-intelligence contest into four words: “Whoever wins AI, wins.” His dismissal of warnings about potentially catastrophic AI risks exposes…
The international order is changing before our eyes. Great-power rivalry is once again dominating global politics. Strategic competition increasingly overshadows cooperation. International law is applied inconsistently, if at all. Trust in multilateral institutions is weakening. The temptation is to conclude that the age of effective multilateralism is drawing to a close. That would be a…
Greenland has long been perceived as a remote and tranquil part of the world, a place where geopolitical storms rarely reach. Yet recent years have shown that even the Arctic’s icy expanses are not insulated from the ambitions of powerful states. The public assertions by President Trump that to the US should acquire Greenland, even…
The United Nations Security Council was designed to stop the world’s worst fires. Too often, it has become the arsonist’s best friend. From Rwanda to Syria to Ukraine, the Council’s five permanent members, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, have used or threatened the veto to stall action while civilians burned….
When 414 of Europe’s most experienced former diplomats, ministers and senior officials speak with one voice, the world ought to listen, and more than the world the EU institutions themselves. The joint statement of the 414, dated 16 October 2025 and titled “From Ceasefire to Peace and Beyond – the EU’s Vital Role”, is more…
China’s Global Governance Initiative isn’t defiance — it’s a response to paralysis When President Xi Jinping unveiled the Global Governance Initiative (GGI) earlier this year, Western capitals reacted as though the world had just tilted on its axis. The headlines were predictable: China challenges the world order. Beijing builds a parallel system. The liberal rules-based…
The United Nations turns 80 at a moment when its relevance is under sharper question than at any point since its founding. Conceived in the ashes of global war, the UN was meant to embody collective security and the promise of universal cooperation. Today, it stumbles under financial arrears of more than USD 5 billion,…