Annual Meeting 2026

Multilateralism under Challenge and the Future of the Pact

Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

Lisbon, Portugal | Wednesday, 1 July – Friday, 3 July 2026

Co-Chairs:

Julia Seixas
Professor
Universidade NOVA de Lisboa

Richard Ponzio
Senior Fellow & Director
Stimson Center

Description:

The 2026 ACUNS Annual Meeting will examine how multilateral governance can be maintained despite challenges from major and emerging powers, continuing armed conflicts, humanitarian emergencies, overheated planet, and other crises. In September 2024, the Summit of the Future galvanized attention worldwide on rebuilding trust and gaps in global governance; reaffirming the UN Charter, 2030 Agenda, and other existing commitments; and renewing the multilateral system to prepare for over-the-horizon challenges and opportunities. Responding to unilateral funding cuts by the world body’s largest donor, the Secretary-General’s UN80 Initiative, in 2025, is intended to streamline and consolidate the UN system, while building momentum for delivery of the Pact for the Future – the 2024 Summit’s chief outcome – in the run-up to its 2028 high-level review. Together, the Pact and UN80 aspire to re-commit Member States  to multilateral cooperation and international law and to reform global institutions toward resilience, equity, innovation, and intergenerational justice. The current international climate calls into question some aspects of these hopeful scenarios.

The Annual Meeting will critically assess the UN system’s capacity to facilitate multilateral cooperation and reflect on its performance since the last comprehensive UN system-wide reform effort, the UN60 World Summit in 2005. We invite panels and papers that examine challenges to multilateralism in current or previous times, how they have been and can be overcome, and what opportunities they provide. We also welcome contributions that focus on the tension between power and norms, between political declarations and actions/implementation in various fields.

Call for Proposals

The application is now open for the submission of abstracts that propose papers, policy briefs, roundtables, and research-policy tools from scholars, students, practitioners, and the United Nations staff and delegates. The application for volunteers to serve as a Chair or Discussant is also open.

Submissions are invited under one of the following broad thematic categories:

  • The Pact for the Future, UN80 Initiative, UN Charter reform, and UN financial crisis
  • Challenges to reforming multilateral institutions and possible solutions/opportunities
  • Regional organizations as building blocks for global governance innovation
  • International law and international courts
  • Peace, security, and conflict prevention
  • Global economic governance and financing for development, poverty and inequality reduction
  • Human rights, refugees, and humanitarian assistance
  • Climate change and the environment
  • Science, technology, and digital governance
  • Civil society, youth, local communities

Deadline for submission: Thursday, 15 January 2026, 11:59 PM EST

Selected participants will be notified in February 2026

Apply Here

Keynote Address

2026 ACUNS Lecture in Honor of Kofi Annan

H.E. Jean-Pierre Lacroix
Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations
United Nations

For questions, contact annualmeeting@acuns.org.

Last Updated: Sunday, 19 October 2025