The New Book
World Net Order. Solutions Multilateralism
The book presents a theory on the peaceful evolution of international relations in the upcoming years and is the inaugural volume in a series on New Multilateralism.
To achieve this, it employs anticipatory thinking, an ideas lab, structured discussions, and a thorough knowledge accumulation process, drawing from both scholars and practitioners since 2012. Along the way, it has been enriched by emerging topics, such as the impact of AI on free media, while addressing the increasingly urgent quest for global solutions.
"The World Net Order" encapsulates a decade's worth of research aimed at providing a comprehensive answer to contemporary questions, specifically through a trilogy of works: "Powering Universalism" (Klein Publishing House), "Transforming Security" (Springer), and "Envisioning Peace in a Time of War" (Facultas), as detailed in the NSM Library.
In revisiting peace and security matters, the founder of the NSM Ursula Werther-Pietsch further developed her Habilitationsschrift (Friedensicherung, Selbstbestimmung und Gewaltverbot, nwv 2012). The guiding concept of 'Multilateral System Thinking', as presented by the author, builds on the thoughts of professors and diplomats, i.a. Konrad Ginther, Felix Ermacora, Georg Lennkh, Irene Giner-Reichl, Anne Peters, Daniel Thürer and Martti Koskenniemi.
Preface by UN-USG
UN USG Melissa Fleming, UN Under Secretary General for Global Communications
Our world is in crisis.
We face challenges on every front. Wars, the threat of nuclear confrontation, forgotten crises, barbaric acts with appalling civilian toll, brutal retaliation, and risk of escalation. More people died in conflicts around the world in 2023 than during any year in the past three decades. A quarter of humanity now lives in conflict-affected areas, with devastating impacts on millions of lives and livelihoods.
Inequality and joblessness continue to rise, human rights and democracy are under attack. The Covid-19 pandemic set back progress on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Misinformation, disinformation and hate are poisoning our information ecosystems. Climate disasters grow more frequent, more expensive, and more deadly. Our vision for a better world is in trouble.
Acting together, the international community can address these problems.
The upcoming Summit of the Future aims to create a new multilateralism embracing a multipolar world, countering major power competition and deepening collaboration where joint efforts are needed. The related outcomes – the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity, as well as the Pact for the Future, the Declaration on Future Generations and the Global Digital Compact, present a new blueprint to respond to today’s challenges. Meanwhile, under the banner ‘UN 2.0’ the Secretary-General has put forward a vision of a rejuvenated organization equipped with cutting-edge expertise and technology that can breathe new life into our common efforts.
We place our hopes in the Summit of the Future in New York in September 2024 and a revitalized United Nations, that will bring the world forward towards peace and prosperity on a healthy planet.
The Author
Ursula Werther-Pietsch holds the position of Visiting Professor at the University of Graz, Austria. She teaches international law and international relations at the University of Graz and the University of the German Armed Forces in Munich. Additionally, she has taught at the University of Vienna, the Vienna Diplomatic Academy, and the Austrian Defence Academy. Ursula is a member of the German Society for International Law, the Scientific Commission of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Defence, and the board of the International Institute for Peace (IIP). She is the co-editor of The Defence Horizon Journal Special Edition, which she co-founded in 2021. Serving as a long-term scientific advisor to the Academic Forum for Foreign Policy (YUNA), she is since 2023 the Co-chair of an EU-wide network on Media and Digital Transformation (Team Europe Democracy, TED). Her research delves into collective security, human rights, human security, peacebuilding in fragile contexts, resilience, multilateral system thinking, human centrism, and anticipatory governance. Her most recent publications include Powering Universalism (ed., Klein 2021), Transforming Security (Springer 2022), and Envisioning Peace in a Time of War (ed., Facultas 2022).
For additional information, you can visit her on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Wikipedia. :)
New NSM Series, edited by Ursula Werther-Pietsch
The new series New School of Multilateralism, Nomos Publishing House, addresses today's geopolitical problems and develops a new perspective on international relations. Idealism and realism must be combined and constructive solutions offered. Each volume will present operational proposals on a selected topic. In the first volume, the "world net order" for the renewal of the rules-based order was presented by the editor. Further volumes on global great power strategies, crisis management, the future of European security, AI and human rights, ecological resilience and geoeconomics are planned. The series accompanies the Master's programme in Global Studies at the University of Graz. The volumes are subject to an academic review process. They are published (semi-)annually. A publication plan is presented here.
The Library. NSM Papers
Die internationale Ordnung ist in Bewegung, soviel ist sicher – aber wohin bewegt sie sich zwischen Energiekrisen, wachsender Ungleichheit und atomarer Bedrohung? Keine der Grand Theories der Politikwissenschaft hat es bisher geschafft, die turbulenten Dynamiken der letzten 30 Jahre seit dem Fall der Berliner Mauer ausreichend zu erklären (Wolfgang Petritsch). Der Weg in die Zukunft weist eine hochgradige Komplexität auf, die Unsicherheit hervorruft. Aber auch als Chance wahrgenommen werden und einer geopolitischen Spaltung entgegenwirken kann.
Mitgeschrieben haben Bea Austin, Berghof Stiftung, Berlin, Martin Kreutner, unabhängiger Konsulent und ehem. Dekan der IACA, Thomas Greminger, OSCE Generalsekretär a.D. und Exekutivdirektor des GCSP, Heinz Gärtner, Professor un Institutsleiter Politikwissenschaft, Wien, Velina Tchakarova, Forsight Expertin, Michael Staudinger, Direktor a.D. Geosphere Austria (ZAMG), Florian Weinreich, Student der Philosophie, Universität Wien and Fulbright-Stipendiat (San Jose State University, Silicon Valley).
Universität Graz, unipub, Open Access Pulikationsserver: https://doi.org/10.25364/404.2023.1
There is an urgent need of responsiveness and structural reform in the international sphere. Recent breaches of international law, a geopolitical resetting, and dysfunctional norm-setting led to massive losses of trust and credibility in the multilateral arena. All in all, the transformative triangle that underpins a new theory of international relations is built by the dimensions of democratisation, regionalisation, and a renewed universal commitment to Peace.
Die Friedens-Warte Vol. 96, 2023, issue 1-4, 144-164
DOI 10.35998/fw-2023-0008
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres‘ call for reform is timely, if not overdue. Dysfunctionality and polarisation characterise established multilateralism. China, Russia, the “West” and the new “in-betweeners” are pursuing a dominant logic of realpolitik, systemic competition and rival bloc formation. Democracies are no longer in the majority. Life worlds are breaking apart and multilateral fora are less and less able to act as mediators. Consequentially, there is a gulf between global power and responsibility. Therefore, an international order that takes account of the non-state and regional dimensions is becoming increasingly urgent.
Zeitschrift für Öffentliches Recht, ZÖR 2024, 147 Heft 1
The Quest for Peace in a World of Blocs and Poles is our duty, Stefan Zweig may have characterised what mankind after WWII should best keep in mind. Analyzing the disputed “Given” and turning to the “Envisioned” a few months after the Russian aggression against the Ukraine, this book is an early powerful response to the new age of unpeace, striving for strengthening international cooperation and lying the foundations of the NSM in a still fragile moment of history.
Ten eminent people from practice and theory of which Karina Jasmin Karik, University of Vienna, Walter Kemp, OSCE, Wolfgang Petritsch, former Secretary of State and Chief negotiator of Rambouillet peace agreement on the Western Balkans, Michael Reiterer, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Raquel Esther Jorge Ricart, Real Instituto Madrid, Fred Tanner, Geneva Institute, Johannes Varwick, Universität Halle-Wittenberg, or Juliette Wiegmann, Berghof Foundation, contributed to this topical piece of thinking.
Werther-Pietsch (ed.), Envisioning Peace in a Time of War, New School of Multilateralism, 10 Essays. Facultas, 2022
The author examines the collective security system as it now stands, focusing on strategic and normative frameworks, offers practice-driven research perspectives in the field of peacekeeping and frames a post-COVID-19 world of adapted global intervention.
Werther-Pietsch, Transforming Security, A New Balance-of-Power Doctrine. Springer, 2022
The autocratic challenge to democracies, a two-systems rivalry, large dominance of realpolitik and the emergence of big tech powerhouses as global players are the strategic matches of our times. To this adds the COVID-19 pandemic as a poly crisis, for some, the end of the Unit-ed Nations. How would a digitalised, environmentally sustainable and gender-sensitive world look like in 2050? In the manifesto “Future Global Governance”, more than 30 co-authors revisit the changed context for multilateralism and view new forms of anticipatory human-centred governance. The book re-examines universalism, strategic autonomy and resilience against today’s power projections.
Werther-Pietsch (ed.), Powering Universalism. Klein pulishing house, 2021
The NSM series are the ideal starting point for more. Upcoming topics on this dashboard could comprise "Strategies of Multilateralism", "Ethics of AI" by Eugen Dolezal (ed.) from the University of Graz, a "Cyberspace update" by Matthias Kettemann and his team from the University of Innsbruck, or "The US elections" documented and critically reviewed by Reinhard K. Heinisch from the University of Salzburg. Or it could reflect your ideas in the field of NSM. Please apply using the contact form (see Become a NSM Member).