Building Resilient Global Governance for an Era of Recurring Crises

This policy brief examines how global governance arrangements can be made resilient amid increasingly frequent transnational crises that simultaneously demand and undermine international cooperation. Drawing on the concept of hybrid institutional complexes, the authors argue that resilience depends not on individual institutions but on interconnected networks of diverse governance arrangements capable of absorbing shocks, adapting through innovation, and preparing for future crises. The brief identifies institutional diversity, a balance between robust institutions that sustain commitments and flexible institutions that enable rapid adaptation, and strong connections across institutions as essential foundations of resilience. Comparing responses to the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis and COVID-19, it illustrates how institutional coordination and leadership strengthened financial governance, while the dominance of flexible institutions left global health cooperation without the absorptive capacity to overcome vaccine nationalism and unilateral national policies, despite significant institutional innovation. The authors recommend strengthening institutional diversity and connectivity, cultivating leaders and bricoleurs who can recombine existing institutional resources into innovative responses, and embedding institutional learning and preparedness to improve collective responses to future crises.