Health and wellnessTrade and capitalClimate and natural capital Peace and securityOverallOverall 0.7 0.60.80.91.01.11.2 2016 2017 2018 2019 2012 2013 2014 2015 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024Global Cooperation Barometer over time Innovation and technologyGlobal Cooperation Barometer over time FIGURE 2 Source: Aggregation of 41 metrics, McKinsey & Company analysis. Why cooperation is evolving Pressure on institutions and arrangements that support global multilateral cooperation has been building for over a decade and a half. The aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis was marked by a long tail of growing dissatisfaction in the globalized international system, with a slowdown in the growth of the shares of trade and cross- border finance in the global economy.5 If the years immediately following the Global Financial Crisis were a period of brewing cooperative malaise, the most recent five years delivered a series of acute shocks that tested the very construct of global multilateralism. The pandemic, the Russia–Ukraine conflict and resulting energy shock, escalating conflict in many regions and more interventionist trade policies all rattled long-held norms and systems underpinning cooperation. These shocks have sharpened debates over how to balance domestic imperatives with shared objectives – from emissions cuts and security to competitiveness and development – and they have prompted the system’s own stewards to call for renewal and reform, including the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank.6 As these shocks have rippled around the world, they have reshaped, rather than shattered, the contours of cooperation. To be sure, cooperation has receded in many areas (notably, as mentioned, regarding global multilateralism and global security and trade). Yet five years on from the start of the pandemic, a new, nuanced picture of cooperation is starting to emerge – one in which cooperation is adapting to a more multipolar reality, and where economies are still pursuing global objectives, but focusing on where and when they see it as a viable pathway to advance their respective priorities. The Global Cooperation Barometer reflects the retreat from global multilateralism, as metrics tied to multilateral mechanisms have dropped (Figure 3). For example, by the end of 2024, peacekeeping activity, multilateral resolutions and health aid had all dropped by more than 20% since the pre-pandemic level of 2019, despite the number of conflicts and the need for humanitarian assistance increasing in the same period. In 2024 alone, foreign aid dropped by 11%, a trend that has been exacerbated in 2025. Five years on from the start of the pandemic, a new, nuanced picture of cooperation is starting to emerge. The Global Cooperation Barometer 2026 8