From Bandung to Berlin. How to Renew Multilateralism Today.

On 8 October 2025, the Körber-Stiftung convened a two-part Global History & Politics Dialogue in Berlin on how the Bandung Spirit can inform efforts to renew multilateralism in an era of multipolarity and multi-alignment. Building on an earlier dialogue held in Bandung, Indonesia, in April 2025, the roundtable brought together policymakers, scholars, and practitioners for an applied history exchange. The conference also marked the launch and reflected on the impulses set in our publication „Bandung at 70: Multilateralism in a New Era of Multi-Alignment“, which arose following the Bandung Conference earlier that year.

The first session opened with inputs by the former German Chancellor and Member of the Parliament Olaf Scholz as well as by Dino Patti Djalal, Founder of the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia and former Deputy Foreign Minister of Indonesia, and Dima Al-Khatib, Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. The discussion revisted the historical legacies of the 1955 Bandung Conference and their relationship to the post-war international order. Participants reflected on the political context that gave rise to Bandung, its principles of sovereignty, equality, and non-alignment, and its often-overlooked contribution to shaping multilateral cooperation. The discussion examined competing narratives about the “rules-based international order”, including critiques from the Global South that question its universality and distribution of benefits. Against the backdrop of eroding trust in international institutions, participants debated which elements of the existing order remain worth preserving and how multilateralism has repeatedly adapted to moments of crisis in the past.

The second session was introduced by Ana Palacio, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain and former Senior Vice President and General Counsel of the World Bank Group; Nabil Fahmy, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, and Swapna Kona Nayudu, Historian. It turned to the future, exploring how Europe and countries of the Global South might jointly shape a more inclusive form of multilateralism suited to a multipolar world. Discussions addressed the role of international law, middle-power agency, and non-aligned traditions in rebuilding credibility and balancing interests across regions. Rather than treating multilateralism as a Western legacy, participants emphasized the need to understand it as a shared practice rooted in diverse historical experiences. The session concluded by considering in a applied history approach how impulses from Bandung can inform new approaches to cooperation, institutional reform, and trust-building in today’s increasingly fragmented global order.

This dialogue followed a public panel discussion on 7 October, where key findings from the publication were first presented to a wider audience in the Richard von Weizsäcker Forum in Berlin. Together, these events with the Robert Bosch Stiftung underscored the enduring relevance of the Bandung Spirit in shaping the future of global cooperation.

Following our Global History & Politics Dialogue, several key takeaways emerged from the discussions:

• The rules-based international order needs credibility and reform: the “next” international order needs rules formulated and held upright by all to restore trust and legitimacy.
• Middle Powers: The future of multilateralism and a new world order depends on middle powers and regional actors taking initiative, fostering dialogue, and anchoring reforms in shared principles.
• Reforming the UN: To stay relevant in changing times, the UN must evolve and reflect today’s changed world and the needs of countries of the Global South.
• Equal Partnerships: The Global South doesn’t need to adapt but to define its own norms and interests. Real partnership needs equity, not dependency.
• Europe faces a moment of reckoning: it must redefine leadership through humility, partnership, and consistency; not by imposing, but by listening and co-creating.
• Development policy and pragmatic partnerships can become bridges for a renewed multilateral system: one based on trust, mutual benefit, and respect for different models of governance.

This Global History & Politics Dialogue was a joint project of the Körber History Forum, the Körber Emerging Middle Powers Initiative, the BRICS Policy Center, the Foreign Policy Community Indonesia, the Gateway House, the Oxford University , dem SAIIA and the Robert Bosch Stiftung.