International Crisis Group: 30th Anniversary

2025 marks Crisis Group's 30th anniversary. Over the last thirty years, we have made great strides focusing on conflict resolution, preventing and addressing conflict wherever our organisation finds it. But as we celebrate this significant milestone, new challenges lie ahead, and our work remains essential at a moment of danger and discontinuity for the world.

ODI in conversation with Mark Malloch-Brown

Mark Malloch-Brown, outgoing President of Open Society Foundations, joins our Chief Executive Sara Pantuliano for a candid conversation about the role of philanthropy for global good.

With a 30-year philanthropic legacy, Open Society Foundations is one of the world’s largest private funders working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights.

The conversation covers:

• The role of philanthropy in a world of escalating conflict and crisis

• The crisis of legitimacy facing the philanthropic sector

• Trust-based giving, and new paradigms for philanthropy

• Why bottom-up social movements and engagement with civil society are so critical.

Mark Malloch-Brown has worked to advance human rights, justice, and development for more than four decades in a variety of roles: with the United Nations, the World Bank, and as a British government minister, as well as with a range of civil society groups and business. He was knighted for his contribution to international affairs and is currently on leave from the British House of Lords.

Times Radio. Trump's Lifting Of Oil Sanctions Is A 'Moment Of Weakness' For America

Lord Malloch Brown was speaking to Hugo Rifkind on Times Radio.

ODI: Bretton Woods at 80 – reforming global economic governance

Eighty years after the creation of the Bretton Woods institutions, the international economic system they underpin is under growing strain.

Geopolitical fragmentation, recurring financial and debt crises, climate shocks and rising funding needs from client countries are challenging the relevance and the effectiveness of these institutions and their global economic governance functions – and whom they ultimately serve.

This event examines the future of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, their relevance, legitimacy, and governance in a rapidly changing global context. It builds on the vision and recommendations of the Bretton Woods at 80 report and its core arguments, co-authored by Patrick Achi, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and Mark Malloch-Brown.

You can access the report here: https://www.bwi80.org/

The panel explores two closely linked themes:

Is the Bretton Woods system still fit for purpose?

How relevant are the World Bank and the IMF to today’s client countries as they face overlapping development, fiscal and climate pressures? How do these institutions fit within an increasingly complex development finance landscape that includes regional and national development banks, bilateral lenders and private capital?

Governance and voice at 80

What reforms are needed to strengthen representation, voice, accountability and legitimacy within the Bretton Woods institutions, particularly for countries in the Global South? What political and institutional constraints limit the scope for change?

Talk at Oxford Martin School

'In Trump's world, is there room for multilateralism?'

The last year has been marked by a dramatic turn away from multilateral cooperation towards the assertion of national interest. Many attribute this directly to the re-election of President Trump, and while he is the most prominent spokesman and catalyst for this change, the talk will trace how the US move away from multilateral cooperation began much earlier. This shift is also not limited to the US, as other countries also focus on the promotion of national interest over international solidarity.

A phrase that has been used to describe the new condition of international politics is: "multipolarity with Trump characteristics." This deliberately borrows from an earlier apparent conversion of the multilateral system to one where China played a much more important part. That competition between the US and China is now playing out across a range of international political and trade issues, including leadership in institutions such as the United Nations and BWIs. And as these rivals tussle for influence, a range of new emerging powers such as Brazil, India, South Africa and others demand a greater role. They, together with many smaller countries, fear the collapse of the multilateral value system associated with rule-of-law. The talk will describe this three way tug of war for influence and its likely outcomes.

Times Radio: Trump’s ‘real test’ starts now: Will he stick around for end of Gaza crisis?

“This will be a real test of whether Trump can change gears, get his head down, and stick with something.”

The “hard part” of resolving the conflict between Israel and Gaza starts after the hostages are returned, as there is yet to be an agreement around how Gaza will be governed, says former UN deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown. 

Times Radio: Trump's failures 'catching up with him' on Saudi trip

"He’s surrounded himself with a very inexperienced team... and it's catching up with him."

What is the point of the UN if it can't stop Putin?

Times Radio on YouTube

Matt Chorley is joined by Lord Malloch Brown, KCMG PC - a British diplomat, communications consultant, journalist and former politician who has served as president of Open Society Foundations since 2021.