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A view of Lagarde’s ‘new multilateralism’
International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has offered “new multilateralism” as a counter-idea to challenge skepticism about the future of multilateralism. Lagarde’s new multilateralism sends a strong message to the international community that the multilateral approach remains effective for international cooperation.
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International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde smiles during a press briefing on the sidelines of the 2017 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington DC, United States. (IMF/International Monetary Fund)
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n the midst of pressure from United States President Donald Trump, multilateralism still has support. International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde has offered “new multilateralism” as a counter-idea to challenge skepticism about the future of multilateralism. Lagarde’s new multilateralism sends a strong message to the international community that the multilateral approach remains effective for international cooperation. However, it needs to be adjusted.
There have been at least three important occasions in which Lagarde has raised her idea of new multilateralism. In 2014, she started to promote new multilateralism as a tool to cope with demographic shift, environmental degradation and income inequality. She argued that new multilateralism would provide an impetus for listening more to the new voices; not only to the major powers.
Then, four years after later, during a plenary session at the 2018 Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank Group in Bali in mid-October, she again mentioned her idea of new multilateralism. On this occasion, she defined new multilateralism as a more inclusive, more people-centered and more result-oriented approach to cooperation.
According to Lagarde, new multilateralism should accommodate more diverse perspectives and voices; place people’s needs as a top priority; and also promote effective and accountable results.
