Answer: The global multilateral order was designed to foster cooperation among states based on shared principles of conduct, indivisibility and expectations of diffused reciprocity. It evolved in parallel to the emerging liberal international order rooted in normative assumptions of progress. However, even after decades, the world seems to be fragmented due to issues such as protectionism, unilateral sanctions, treaty withdrawals, and even military and economic coercion. Challenged by the USA, the return of old (Russia) and the growing assertion of new (China), the old order is shaken both in its normative foundations and its operational capacity as highlighted below:

• Due to the competing interests and priorities of the global superpowers e. the USA, China and Russia, the United Nations system has virtually been paralysed.
• The United Nations Security Council has also faced a lot of criticism for not representing the current international power realities and for not being able to shape the global discourse on the changing nature of security.
• Some of the seemingly more reliable institutions, such as the World Health Organization and the International Monetary Fund, are increasingly getting politicized.
• Despite 50 years of the nuclear disarmament treaty, proliferation of nuclear weapons has not stopped. The treaty has also failed in moving towards the eventual disarmament of the nuclear weapons held by the P-5 states.
• Difficulties in negotiating a post-2012 regime of binding targets and timetables and the decisions of the US, Canada, and Russia on the Kyoto Protocol regime have led to pessimism about the future of the climate regime.

This poses a challenge to the “middle powers”, most of which have benefitted from the extant multilateral order. One of the ways in which these countries have responded to this is by building issue-based coalitions among like-minded nations.

• With changing geopolitical equations in the Asia-Pacific region, the Quadrilateral security dialogue got shaped and its expanded formats are also coordinating vaccine development, its export and finding ways to boost economic recovery. Similarly, post Abraham Accords, a new regional dynamic is shaping in the Middle-East. The decline in relevance of the WTO has also seen the rise of regional cooperation such as the RCEP.
• Working groups in critical technologies, climate change, space, biotech, and SG- aimed to develop norms and global standards are a case in point in this context. For instance, formation of a “T10′ or “T12′ technology alliance bringing together the United States and various configurations of other “techno-democracies” to promote and protect technologies.
• The Supply Chain Resilience Initiative between India, Japan, and Australia was undertaken to build resilience of supply chains to ensure dependable sources of supply and attract investment.
• Congruence of efforts overlapping in bilateral, mini-lateral, and plurilateral platforms that then loop into expansion of global initiatives is growing. For example, many countries are joining the India led International Solar Alliance.
• As contestation between democratic countries and authoritarian systems sharpen in the primary theatre of the Indo-Pacific, middle powers are looking at building cooperation. The imperative while responding to the threat of a rising and aggressive superpower looks at going beyond binaries and focusing on capacity building.

The world is changing rapidly and the US as well as China have little or no interest in shaping the multilateral order. As a consequence, plurilaterals are fast emerging as one of the more important instruments available to middle powers to fill the void. This way, the US can be cajoled while China can be pushed back. The calculus of variable geometries is now being shaped by the middle powers. For New Delhi, this is a moment to take the lead in shaping the contours of the emerging world orders.