Kofi Annan, the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, reinvented the role of Secretary-General and exercised global leadership during a turbulent period in world affairs. He tried to rescue the UN from irrelevance. Despite many obstacles, he kept the UN central to international diplomacy and norm setting. A transformational leader, he introduced enduring changes to improve the way the UN operates. With the UN in the crosshairs again, the lessons from Kofi Annan are particularly relevant to the UN’s retention of legal and moral authority.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was one of the most significant geopolitical shifts of the 20th century. Today, more than three decades later, its legacy continues to shape the worldview of the Kremlin and the strategic ambitions of Vladimir Putin. As the possibility of a more permanent ceasefire in Ukraine looms, new questions arise about how Russia’s past informs its present—and what this means for the future of European and global security.

The liberal international order has shaped global politics since the end of the Second World War. But in an age of rising authoritarian powers, renewed great-power rivalry, and domestic political backlash, its future appears increasingly uncertain. Is liberal internationalism in terminal decline—or is it evolving to meet the challenges of a changing world?

In 2016, writing in The Washington Post, Daniel Drezner asked: “where have all the big IR theories gone?” Since then, many other IR scholars have confirmed that IR theorising appears to have reached a dead end. Given that “there is nothing so practical as a good theory” (Kurt Lewin), the current impasse of IR theory is not just an academic matter – especially not in a world characterised by resurgent authoritarianism, pressing global environmental threats, and the spread of life-altering technologies.