The liberal international order faces an increasing number of challenges. Internally, rising inequality, political
polarization, populism, and nativism have led to question the political foundations of key liberal and
internationalist values on which the order relies upon. Externally, the rise of China, the return of Russia and the
consolidation of increasingly autonomous forms of regional governance in South East Asia, Africa, Latin
American have generated processes of contestation of the key political, economic, institutional, and normative
foundation of the liberal international order. All these developments seem to point to a future in which the
international order will be plural both in terms of identity and norms and in terms of power and influence. Will
this increasing plurality determine instability and competition? Will the decline of the material and ideational
influence of the West translate into a decline of liberalism, democracy and freedom? What impact do structural
transformations introduced by technological revolutions (e.g. digital revolution, big data and Artificial
intelligence) and social transformations (generational, demographic, cultural) have on these processes? Will
environmental change and the challenges linked to pandemics such as COVID-19 lead to cooperation or
further conflict? What role do different type of actors (e.g. transnational, intergovernmental, governmental, and
individual) play?