An optimist's – and pessimist's – guide to the state of global cooperation

After trending positively for almost a decade, overall global cooperation levels have stalled, according to a new World Economic Forum report.

“As the world transitions from what had been a stable post-Cold War global order to a new, more unsettled and unpredictable period, political and geopolitical turbulence has the potential to degrade global collaborative efforts,” notes the Global Cooperation Barometer 2025.

The barometer—published in collaboration with McKinsey & Company and released ahead of the Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 in Davos, Switzerland—uses 41 indicators to analyse the state of global cooperation broadly and across five dimensions: trade and capital, innovation and technology, climate and natural capital, health and wellness, and peace and security. The five pillars were chosen because of their impact on global development and their explicit dependence on cooperative efforts among countries.

The report notes that the principal reason for the stall in cooperation levels is the degradation in global peace and security. Nonetheless, the barometer also finds that there are signs of continued and burgeoning cooperation in other areas—and that the necessity for cooperation remains significant.

“Leaders across public and private sectors face new urgency in deepening cooperation on critical global objectives that they cannot advance alone,” the report notes.

Overall, the report offers insights for those with a more optimistic outlook of global cooperation as well as those with a more pessimistic outlook. Here’s a guide for both:

A key bright spot of the 2025 barometer are the cooperation levels around climate and nature capital. Although climate action remains inadequate, cooperation levels continue to trend positively.

The report notes that global cooperation aimed at lowering emissions, preserving natural capital and preparing for the effects of the climate crisis trends positively, with public and private sector climate finance flows reaching record levels in recent years. The boost in climate-related financing, the report states, helped boost low-carbon technology industries.

“Solar and wind deployment prevented what otherwise would have been higher coal and gas demand for power generation, while the deployment of electric vehicles (EVs) led to less oil demand than would have otherwise been observed,” the barometer notes.

Global cooperation around innovation and technology trends positively, too. The barometer found that the digitization of the global economy has fuelled cooperation, which has “continued to drive global adoption of new technologies.”

The price of lithium-ion batteries, for instance, fell in 2023. The report notes that the decrease was in part driven by innovation around surveying and extraction technologies that boosted the supply of critical minerals. The price dip supported a 30% increase in the deployment of the technologies, the report added.

The barometer also noted that important health outcomes like child mortality and life expectancy are improving following the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, biomedical innovations and frontier technologies continue to advance and show promise regarding detection, diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

The flatlining of global cooperation could have dire consequences on the global economy and people worldwide.

“The lack of progress comes as the past year is expected to be the hottest on record, the global economy is in a historically weak position, and global security is at a crisis point,” the barometer notes. “The world is entering a state of greater instability, caused by high levels of electoral discontent and geopolitical rivalry.”

The deterioration of global cooperation levels around peace and security remains acute, and had the largest impact on the overall barometer results. The report states that peace and security cooperation has fallen for seven consecutive years, with all metrics in this pillar remaining below pre-pandemic averages.

War and conflict, the barometer notes, continues to rage in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan, among other global hot spots. In 2024, over 122 million people were forcibly displaced, an increase from the 118 million displaced in 2023.

Furthermore, major international institutions have largely been unable to curb ongoing wars — and prevent new ones from erupting. The United Nations Security Council, for instance, passed fewer resolutions in 2023 than in any year since 2013 and has not mandated a new UN peacekeeping operation since 2014, according to an analysis from the International Peace Institute.

“The inability of the international community to come together to prevent or stop this escalation of violence is the most serious concern about the state of the global cooperative muscle,” the Forum’s report notes.

The barometer’s trade and capital investment pillar trends negative, too. The dip in cooperation, the report notes, was driven largely by reductions in goods trade in China and developing economies.

The barometer also warns that “rising trade restrictions, especially in important innovation sectors such as low-carbon technologies, present significant risks to global cooperation” as well as to global sustainability goals. At present, only 17% of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are on track to meet the 2030 deadline.

Moreover, the barometer notes that even the positive trends in global cooperation remain inadequate.

In the climate and natural capital pillar, for instance, the report adds that “despite this progress, the world continues to be far from what would be required for a net-zero scenario.” Meanwhile, for health and wellness, the report notes that “there is a risk that decreased cooperation will eventually act as a drag on health outcomes” and stresses that “metrics related to cooperation actions, including cross-border assistance and pharmaceutical R&D, have continued to fall since 2020, although they remain above pre-pandemic levels.”

The Forum’s report maintains that global cooperation remains imperative to solving the various issues facing the world.

“The foundation of resilience, security and growth is cooperation,” the report notes. “The question leaders must ask themselves, then, is not whether they should cooperate, but how.”

The report calls on leaders to be comfortable with disordered approaches, to pivot quickly toward opportunities as they emerge, to not overlook what may appear to be small opportunities for cooperation and to consider structural segmentation that increases resilience and reduces risk exposure.

“Staying the course on ineffective pathways will only build greater distrust among partners, leaders and between leaders and their constituents,” the report concludes. “However, being agile and pivoting to cooperative solutions will both deliver results and build trust among constituencies, creating a virtuous cycle in which trust in cooperation deepens and new opportunities for shared solutions emerge.”