This is the third webinar in the Virtual Dialogues series centred on the newly released book Global Cooperation in Times of Crisis: Grasping the Changing Mood of the World. The series explores how “epochal moods” shape the possibilities for global cooperation and asks what became of the spirit associated with 2015, marked by the adoption of major international frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Paris Agreement on climate change.

While previous sessions focused on diagnosing changing global moods and crisis atmospheres, this third webinar turns to the question of navigation: how do societies, institutions, communities, and individuals make sense of and respond to a world increasingly defined by uncertainty, fragmentation, and overlapping crises?

Periods of crisis rarely offer clear roadmaps. Governments, international organisations, civil society actors, and local communities are often required to act under conditions of incomplete information, contested priorities, and unpredictable futures. Decisions must be made while crises are still unfolding, and responses are shaped not only by institutions and resources, but also by shifting political moods, public emotions, and changing visions of the future.

The webinar will explore how global governance adapts to uncertainty, how development cooperation is being reshaped by new actors and changing norms, and how environmental ambitions rise or decline according to broader political and social atmospheres. It will also examine how everyday survival strategies and informal economies become central sources of resilience when formal systems fail to provide security or opportunity.

Participants will reflect on the practical and political challenges of navigating crisis: how institutions prepare for unknown futures, how cooperation evolves within fragmented geopolitical landscapes, and how citizens respond creatively to instability and disruption. Rather than viewing crisis solely as breakdown, the session considers crisis as a space of adaptation, contestation, and transformation—where new pathways and forms of cooperation may emerge even in uncertain times.

Speakers:

• Sylvain Maechler - Postdoctoral Researcher in International Relations with a focus on International Political at the Geneva Graduate Institute
• Peter Taylor - Professorial Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
• Ricardo Fuentealba - Assistant Professor at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales of the Universidad de O'Higgins in Rancagua, Chile
• Ignacio Riquelme Espinosa - Assistant Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences at the Universidad de O’Higgins, Chile
• Luis Eduardo Diaz - PhD Research Fellow at UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Moderator:

Reidar Staupe — Associate Professor of Societal Security and Aurora Fellow at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and Adjunct Associate Professor at Oslo New College.

This webinar is part of the Virtual Dialogues series based on the book Global Cooperation in Times of Crisis: Grasping the Changing Mood of the World. It is the third of five webinars exploring the book’s key themes and debates. Two additional sessions will follow, each addressing different dimensions of crisis, cooperation, and global transformation.

Register here