[CFP for Current PhD scholars and early career researchers] Reviving multilateralism – Go Health Pro

Workshop theme

The rules-based international order appears to be crumbling, marked by fragmentation in both trade and defense. The US-China trade war and the imposition by the US administration of “reciprocal” tariffs on allies and adversaries alike have disrupted global trade. In defense, the US commitment to NATO has waned, prompting Europe to rearm, and putting strain on existing multilateral institutions, including the UN. A shift from multilateral solutions is also evident in the European Union’s adoption of unilateral trade instruments to defend its interests in an international trading system where the WTO appellate body no longer functions, and trade policy increasingly serves national security interests.

This situation poses a significant challenge to the EU, an international organisation of 27 sovereign states, whose founding treaties require it to ‘promote multilateral solutions to common problems, particularly in the framework of the United Nations’. In a world with fewer like-minded partners, can the EU play a role in reviving or reconstructing multilateralism without US leadership? Can the EU’s embrace of a ‘strategic autonomy’ agenda be reconciled with a principled commitment to multilateralism? Could the EU’s bilateral and plurilateral agenda lay the foundations for a new multilateral system, potentially with a diminished US role? What would the EU’s role be in such a system, and how can it ensure alignment with its founding values of rule of law and democracy? Likewise, how can the EU avoid centralised, executive-led decision-making that sidelines courts and parliaments while constructing this new order?

Topics of interest

We welcome abstracts that address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• The effects of the US-China trade conflict on global trade and multilateralism and the EU’s responses to it.

• The EU’s unilateral trade instruments and their implications for multilateralism.

• The role of the EU in a fragmented international security landscape, including institutional proposals for a new or reformed security architecture in Europe.

• Strategies for the EU to revive multilateralism, including but not limited to the UN, without US leadership.

• The EU’s bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements as foundations for a new multilateral trading system.

• Strategies to ensure alignment of a new multilateral system with the EU’s founding values.

• Strategies to avoid centralised, executive-led decision-making in the EU’s multilateral efforts and safeguard compliance with the EU’s founding values of the rule of law and democracy.

• The future of the WTO and the EU’s role in its potential reform.

• The future of investment protection and the role of a multilateral investment court.

• The international role of the euro and the EU’s role in and cooperation with international monetary institutions.

• The EU’s approach to integrating national security interests within the international rules-based order.

• Comparative analysis of the EU’s multilateral strategies with other global actors.

Informations :

• 04 – 05 December 2025

• Starts at: 09:00h

• Fee: free

• Venue: T.M.C. Asser Instituut

• Organiser: T.M.C. Asser Instituut, CLEER, Utrecht University, University of Groningen

• Address: R.J. Schimmelpennincklaan 20-22, 2517 JN The Hague, Netherlands

• More informations can be found on the attached file