In the halcyon days of multilateralism during the 1990s, the prospects for strengthening global cooperation looked very promising due to the political changes in Russia and the Eastern bloc states and the liberalism in Western countries.
All that has changed. We are back to an assertive Russia, and now also a powerful China, and witnessing the death of liberalism in the US and its attenuation in many European countries.
As someone who worked in the UN during that optimistic period, I present to you a requiem for multilateralism—launched about 80 years ago and now, sadly, in a state of decline.