The House Article | We must fix the international system before it falls apart completely

6 min read16 December 2025

These are not isolated crises but warnings of a world sliding into a new, more volatile era of conflict – one our existing institutions are no longer equipped to contain.

For all the diplomatic summits and urgent appeals, the international system no longer seems capable of resolving the problems it’s confronted with. Conflicts smoulder for years, ceasefires fracture within days, and minority communities are too often the first to suffer and the last to be heard. Institutions designed to preserve peace are faltering at the moment they are needed most, leaving a widening gap between what governments promise abroad and what people experience on the ground.

As the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, warned at the opening of the Summit of the Future in September 2024, “21st-century challenges require 21st-century solutions”. It was more than a rhetorical flourish; it was an acknowledgement that the multilateralism we inherited – valuable though it once was – is no longer equal to the threats of today.

Yet amid the prevailing gloom, there remains an opportunity to build something stronger.

Last year, world leaders adopted the Pact for the Future, a UN framework outlining the foundations of a more resilient and inclusive international order. It commits governments to strengthening conflict prevention, developing innovative conflict-resolution mechanisms, and integrating inclusive peacebuilding strategies. Crucially, it recognises that reconciliation, justice, and minority inclusion are not peripheral to peace processes but essential to their durability.

The Pact is a beginning, not a conclusion. The international community has acknowledged the danger; the task now is to turn recognition into reality – to construct systems that genuinely prevent violence, repair fractured societies, and safeguard those most vulnerable. Too often, however, ambition stops at the point of announcement. The challenges we face demand more.

Implementation must now become the priority. The Pact will remain an ambitious document on paper unless its principles are translated into concrete action. What the international system lacks is not vision, but practical pathways for delivery.

Signs of a viable path forward do exist – if we are willing to heed them.

On 3 December, the International Communities Organisation (ICO), a London-based NGO working for peace and reconciliation in conflict-affected societies, published its report offering practical ways to translate the principles of the UN Pact for the Future into timely, tangible action.

Drawing on real-life case studies from deeply divided societies, the For Our Future: Best Practice for the Implementation of the UN Pact for the Future highlights global interventions – grounded in local context – that have succeeded in reducing tensions and protecting communities, offering a practical path through some of the world’s most protracted – and seemingly intractable – challenges. 

The report does not attempt to redesign the global system. Instead, it identifies the building blocks of a more effective one: approaches that prioritise community voices, establish sustained dialogue between institutions and the communities they serve, embed reconciliation and justice into post-conflict recovery, and ensure that identity-related needs – cultural, linguistic, religious, and communal – are built into peace processes from the start rather than treated as afterthoughts.

It points to several practical measures that have proved transformative in conflict-affected environments. These include ways to bring marginalised groups into the centre of political dialogue, methods for improving communication between governments and the communities they serve, and approaches to preventing the kinds of inherited prejudice that fuel future violence. Taken together, they offer a glimpse of how inclusive, preventive peacebuilding can move from aspiration to reality.

These approaches are already being applied in practice.

In the Middle East, ICO helped broker behind-the-scenes dialogue between former high-ranking officials to bypass deadlock and lay the groundwork for durable peace.

Elsewhere, in Cameroon, ICO supported the establishment of local ‘Gender Coordination Committees’ that have successfully integrated women into economic planning and formal decision-making.

Meanwhile, its work in Kosovo and Cyprus opened direct channels for marginalised groups to influence policy, foster cross-community dialogue and inter-ethnic exchanges in historically divided settings, and transformed how governing institutions respond to diverse community needs.

Together, these case studies serve as a proof of concept: the Pact’s principles can be converted into measurable progress in conflict-prevention and peacebuilding.

These lessons are simple and long overdue: peace is not sustainable unless it is inclusive. Yet the international community has too often treated minority rights as expendable. Addressing these issues early is not a concession; it is an act of prevention. Ensuring wide-ranging representation is not a luxury; it is the basis of legitimacy.

If we are serious about addressing today’s conflicts, the international community needs a renewed and invigorated multilateral system that firmly and uncompromisingly positions human rights, conflict resolution, and minority protection at its core – not as footnotes, but as the foundations of global stability. The alternative is a world in which relentless cycles of violence accelerate, and institutions dedicated to their prevention remain perpetually one step behind.

The ICO’s report does not promise easy fixes, but at a moment when the world is searching for credible ways to break the ‘iron heel of tyranny,’ it offers grounded, actionable thinking. That these insights come from those working directly with affected communities is itself a sign of the multilateralism we need: one that listens, not lectures; one that values lived experience alongside diplomatic expertise.

This is where the ICO’s work becomes most critical. Drawing on lessons from communities already living with the consequences of conflict, the report shows how the Pact’s commitments can be translated into tangible action – not in some remote future, but now. It illustrates that real progress is possible when political will is paired with practical tools and a groundswell of grassroots support.

As the world looks towards another year of crises, multilateralism cannot remain a stale slogan reheated at international gatherings. It must become a practical tool for peace – one that confronts complexity, centres justice, and refuses to leave minorities at the margins.

If governments pledge to adopt these principles with the urgency they require, we may yet build a more hopeful order fit for the century ahead. If they do not, the conflicts we see today will be only a glimpse of the instability still to come.

Alistair Carmichael is the Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland (since 2001). He formerly served as Chair of the APPG on Hong Kong, highlighting human rights concerns and advocating support for Hongkongers facing political repression. He is also a long-standing campaigner for the global abolition of the death penalty. His legal background continues to shape his focus on protecting individual rights and freedoms.