Overview
ENSURED is a three-year research project funded by Horizon Europe that examines how the EU can better defend multilateralism and improve global governance in response to transnational challenges like pandemics, inequality, climate change, and mass migration. The project produces policy briefs, hosts events, and maintains an expert network.
In the news
- Three years, 14 partners, 15 case studies, 200 interviews – and one final blog post. As ENSURED comes to a close this month, our coordinators Hylke Dijkstra and Clara Weinhardt (Maastricht University) look back on what the project set out to do, how much the world changed along the way, and what we've learned. The international order has shifted dramatically since we first started thinking about ENSURED: Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine weeks before our call deadline, a global AI race, a more assertive China, and a
- You've got mail! ENSURED's 6th and final Axial Shifts newsletter is waiting in an inbox near you. What's inside: 🧰 ENSURED's Policy Toolkit 📋 Our key recommendations after 3 years of global governance research ☕ A run-down of our final conference, ft. a pretty cool mug 😘 Speed dating with the Universal Postal Union 🏛️A walk down memory lane with UNESCO .... and much more! Read it for yourself: https://lnkd.in/dRVtHSNu This may be the last edition of Axial Shift, but the questions ENSURED asked will only grow more urgent.
- New ENSURED Policy Brief: "A System Under Strain – What Role Should the EU Play in Multilateral Refugee Response?" Ten years after the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the global refugee response system is in poor shape: 🔸 68% of the world's refugees are hosted in low- and middle-income countries 🔸 Resettlement fell to roughly 81,800 arrivals in 2025 🔸 Aid cuts and the collapse of US funding are forcing UNHCR into a narrower role Meanwhile, the EU remains focused almost entirely on incoming migration. In this
- ENSURED BLOG: “The Most Existential Threat”: Contestation, Sanctions, and the Future of the International Criminal Court by Gisela Hirschmann (Institute of Political Science | Leiden University) The US has moved from sanctioning individual ICC judges to sanctioning the court as an institution, while several states have announced their withdrawal from the Rome Statute. How serious is this moment for international justice? Gisela Hirschmann argues that the sanctions pose an existential threat, reaching into the everyday lives
- Is democratic backsliding hollowing out international organisations? Not yet, according to ENSURED data on 35 IOs. But the warning signs are there. In our mini-series with Democracy Without Borders, Thomas Sommerer and Ha Eun Choi (University of Potsdam) present ENSURED data on 35 IOs, drawing on updated versions of the PIO and TRANSACCESS datasets. What they find: 🔹 Overall policy output has stayed within its historical range, but with sharp divergence. For example, the OAS, the Universal Postal Union and the OSCE have stalled
- NEW POLICY BRIEF | "Safeguarding the WHO: A Prescription for an Effective EU Approach to Global Health" by Óscar Fernández Eighty years after its founding, the World Health Organization finds itself having to justify its own existence. The US withdrawal, a sharp drop in voluntary funding and delayed payments from other member states have left the organisation in a precarious position, just as it prepares to elect a new Director-General in 2027. Europe has positioned itself as one of the WHO’s most vocal champions, and 'Team
- Happening today in Geneva & online Are the UN Global Compacts on Migration and on Refugees delivering? And how is global migration governance being reshaped between multilateralism and minilateralism? Tonight, ENSURED’s Felix Peerboom and Lilian Tsourdi (Maastricht University) present findings from three years of conceptual and empirical research, assessing the Compacts’ effectiveness, robustness, and democratic credentials. Joining them as discussants: 🔹 Madeline Garlick, Chief of the Protection Policy and Legal Advice
- Does democracy matter in global governance reform? 🗳️🌍 In the first of a mini-series for Democracy Without Borders, ENSURED coordinators Hylke Dijkstra and Clara Weinhardt (Maastricht University) draw on our findings from 15 case studies across trade, climate, health, migration, and digital governance, plus more than 200 interviews with representatives of major powers. Their conclusion: “International institutions have only paid limited attention to their democratic credentials in recent years.” Key takeaways: 1️⃣ Reform debates
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