This week, many eyes – at least when not glued to the World Cup soccer matches onscreen – are on Ankara, Turkey. There, the heads of NATO’s 32 member countries are gathered for the transatlantic alliance’s annual summit, amid a rather fractious atmosphere. Some 1,400 miles away, in Geneva, thousands of representatives from the United Nations’ 190-plus members are attending the first all-nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance. The mood there, in the search for shared approaches to safeguard against potentially negative impacts from artificial intelligence, is rather more collegial.
And this same week, out of the limelight, it has emerged that quiet coordination among 59 countries has produced yet another successful crackdown on global human trafficking. The BBC reported Monday that 1,024 people were arrested and at least 2,070 individuals were aided through an operation led by Interpol, the international law enforcement network.
The results “demonstrate what can be achieved when countries work together … and strengthen cooperation across regions,” according to Valdecy Urquiza, the secretary-general of Interpol. The June 8-12 sweep involved law enforcement across five continents and likely required months of data-sharing and communication across national and language boundaries. Similar and sustained efforts by other multilateral bodies – those governing civil aviation, maritime movements, telecommunications, and safe agricultural trade – are what keep the global economy and international relationships humming along smoothly and in relative peace.
Their success in doing so reflects the embedded tenets of trust, reliability, and reciprocation built in and strengthened over decades (or in the case of Interpol, more than a century). At present, these values seem in short supply within NATO. The United States and Europe are at odds over the imbalance in financial and human resources allocated to shared defense. European leaders have increased spending and are expanding their militaries. But they are rattled by U.S. President Donald Trump’s moves to withdraw American forces and armaments from the continent, especially as Russia continues to wage war on neighboring Ukraine.
Even as rhetoric at the NATO summit and news conferences might get heated, most analysts do not expect these differences to lead to an immediate divorce. But weathering the tensions and refashioning the alliance for the future will require more than billion-dollar deals and verbal diplomacy.
Effective multilateral cooperation, according to Frédéric Ramel, a professor at Paris’ Sciences Po, requires both trustworthiness and trust-responsiveness. The one demonstrates reliability and commitment; the other aligns actions with expectations and promises.
“[NATO’s] members must have trust-based commitments beyond strategic interests to function well,” Professor Ramel wrote for the Global Governance Forum last year. Not just “understanding” but “conviviality” among leaders and delegations is important, he said. And so is a mindset “that prioritizes trust, inclusiveness, and shared responsibility.”
More and better weapons systems and battlefield readiness are important. But attaining and maintaining security also rests on a more reliable bedrock, that of common values and respectful communication.