A red thread links the responses to the pandemic crisis and the capacity to address challenges like those posed by the Russia-Ukraine war: the importance of a rules-based international order for both preventing violent conflict and aggression and coping with global crises.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a sovereign state and a democracy, in breach of international law and international agreements and the rules-based international order, is an outright rejection of the principles at the core of the UN Charter. Its severity is compounded by the fact that it happens during a pandemic that has rendered evident the need for increased global cooperation to make the world governable and achieve justice for all.

Against this background, join us on 6 April 2022 from 19:15 -20:45 CET for a virtual webinar where International IDEA and the V-Dem Institute will present the results of their analyses on the state of democracy in the world. In a growingly inter-connected and inter-dependent world, no country can afford to deal with crises of such nature without relying on cooperation and mutual understanding; however, enhancing international cooperation requires that there is such a thing as a rules-based international order. And that’s precisely what is at stake in Ukraine. A world in which might is right is a world in which global cooperation to solve global challenges is all but impossible.

Moderator:

Dr Massimo Tommasoli, Permanent Observer for International IDEA to the UN

Panelists:

Professor Staffan I. Lindberg, Director, V-Dem Institute, Dept. of Political Science, Univ. of Gothenburg

Dr Seema Shah, Head, Democracy Assessment, International IDEA