The Global Cooperation Barometer 2026

The 2026 Global Cooperation Barometer finds that while overall global cooperation remains steady, its nature is shifting away from traditional multilateralism toward smaller, agile, and interest-based partnerships. Cooperation is rising in innovation and technology (driven by AI) and climate action (driven by clean tech deployment), while it is declining sharply in peace and security. Trade and capital cooperation is reconfiguring toward geopolitically aligned partners, and health cooperation is becoming fragile due to sharp contractions in development assistance.

• Overall global cooperation has remained largely unchanged, but there is a distinct shift from traditional multilateralism toward 'minilateralism' or 'plurilateralism,' where smaller, flexible coalitions of countries cooperate based on pragmatic, shared interests.
• Trade and capital cooperation is flattening and reconfiguring; while services and capital flows are growing, goods trade is shifting away from geopolitically distant partners toward more aligned ones. For example, US imports from China fell by approximately 20% in the first seven months of 2025 compared to 2024.
• Cooperation in innovation and technology has risen, primarily driven by the race for AI capabilities, resulting in record global greenfield FDI announcements for data centres, estimated at $370 billion in 2025. However, this is countered by tighter controls on frontier technologies and resources, particularly between the US and China.
• Climate and natural capital cooperation grew due to increased financing and trade in low-carbon technologies, with solar and wind capacity additions in 2024 doubling from 300 GW in 2022 to 600 GW. Despite this, environmental outcomes continue to deteriorate, and deployment is progressing at half the speed required to meet Paris Agreement goals.
• Health and wellness cooperation appears steady due to resilient health outcomes, but is masking a fragile foundation caused by a sharp contraction in development assistance for health (DAH), which fell 6% to $50 billion in 2024.
• Peace and security cooperation has experienced the most severe decline, with every tracked metric falling below pre-pandemic levels. This is evidenced by a record 123 million forcibly displaced people globally by the end of 2024 and a decline in the ratio of multilateral peace operations to conflicts by about 11% year-on-year.
• Official development assistance (ODA) has declined significantly, falling 10.8% in 2024, with OECD estimates suggesting a further 9–17% fall in 2025.

APA

World Economic Forum (2026). The Global Cooperation Barometer 2026. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Cooperation_Barometer_2026.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. The Global Cooperation Barometer 2026. 2026. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Cooperation_Barometer_2026.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=The Global Cooperation Barometer 2026 |date=January 2026 |url=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Cooperation_Barometer_2026.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2026global, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{The Global Cooperation Barometer 2026}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2026}, month = jan, url = {https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Cooperation_Barometer_2026.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }