These are trying times.

When President Metsola invited me in September at the High-Level Week of the UN General Assembly, the world felt already chaotic. I warned of a make-or-break moment for our multilateral system.

Today, only 40 days into 2026:

Venezuela.
Iran.
Greenland.

On top of Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and so many more crises.

The international order is not only under pressure, it is under attack.

And we face a new and more troubling kind of crisis: conflicts waged not even under the pretense of self-defense or respect for international law but often carried out in open defiance of it.

At precisely the moment when we most need cooperation, most need the United Nations, powers, even those who have a special responsibility to protect peace and security, are pulling away from it or even outright attacking it.

This geopolitical shift towards a world where ‘might makes right’, contradicts more than a century of hard, bloody lessons, which people of this region remember all too well.

Rules and standards drawn from these experiences, which were believed to be set in stone, are now openly questioned, dismissed, or violated.

History teaches us that large systems rarely collapse in one dramatic moment.

They erode slowly. Rule by rule. Commitment by commitment.

With those who should defend them, rather staying silent.

Until one day, what seemed permanent simply vanishes.

(February 10, 2026)

In a key address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, Annalena Baerbock repeated her call to uphold multilateralism amid “trying times” globally.

She noted that just 40 days into 2026, the world has already seen crises around Venezuela, Iran and Greenland, on top of continuing devastation in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and elsewhere.

“The international order is not only under pressure, it is under attack,” she told lawmakers.

“And we face a new and more troubling kind of crisis: conflicts waged not even under the pretence of self-defence or respect for international law but often carried out in open defiance of it.”

She warned that at precisely the moment the world most needs cooperation and the UN, “powers – even those who have a special responsibility to protect peace and security – are pulling away from it or even outright attacking it.”

Ms. Baerbock recalled that four years ago, when she was Germany’s Foreign Minister, she addressed the General Assembly and called for the UN to stand up for Europe’s peace as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Today, I’m coming as President of the General Assembly to Europe, calling for Europe to stand up for the United Nations because the world needs the UN. But right now, the UN and its principles as enshrined in the Charter, needs the world too,” she said, referring to all continents.