Strategic Competition > Alliances & Partnerships
Leveraging Multilateral Platforms for Strategic Influence
Preserving the Original Purpose of the Institutions America Built
"Winning strategic competition is not only about who builds the strongest coalitions — it’s about who shapes the rules that govern the global system."
Kennedy Photo - Vail, Colorado.
🔹 Strategic Context
- This page is part of WISC’s Strategic Competition framework, applying geoeconomic statecraft through the STEAD model — integrating Security, Technology, Economics, Alliances, and Diplomacy — to secure U.S. leadership across critical domains.
Strategic Framing
- While agile alliances and coalitions drive operational action, multilateral platforms — global and regional institutions — remain essential battlegrounds for shaping influence, setting norms, and defending the rules-based international order.
- Institutions like the G7, OECD, World Bank, IMF, WTO, and APEC are:
- Arenas for strategic signaling between democratic and authoritarian blocs.
- Platforms for coalition-building beyond formal alliances.
- Levers for defending democratic norms in trade, finance, digital governance, and development models.
- In the competition of systems, control of narrative and norms at the multilateral level is a vital front.
- The U.S. must remain actively engaged — not because these forums alone will win the competition, but because abandoning them would cede critical ground to authoritarian influence.
Why It Matters
- Global Legitimacy:
- Multilateral platforms still shape perceptions of legitimacy — especially among emerging economies and the Global South.
- Rule-Setting in Trade, Finance, and Technology:
- Institutions like the WTO, OECD, and G7 heavily influence the standards and norms that will govern AI, digital trade, infrastructure development, and investment flows.
- Countering Authoritarian Narratives:
- China, Russia, and others seek to recast international norms — on digital sovereignty, development finance, and human rights. Active U.S. and allied engagement is essential to push back.
- Coalition Visibility and Influence:
- G7 statements, IMF lending practices, World Bank infrastructure initiatives — all serve as signals of cohesive democratic leadership versus authoritarian fragmentation.
Insights & Engagements
🏛️ Engaging Administration or Congress, 📰 Op-Ed / Article / Quoted 🎙️ Podcast ✍️ Policy Brief 👥 Roundtable 🎤 Speaking / Moderating 🎥 TV/Video 🌐 Global
G7
Coordinating infrastructure investment (PGII), tech standards, economic security policies, energy transition leadership. Strive for G7 cohesive action in contrast with BRICS diffused inaction
OECD
Leading democratic standard-setting for AI, digital economy frameworks, responsible investment, and economic transparency.
Shaping economic integration, digital trade, and standards alignment in the Indo-Pacific.
Offering sustainable, transparent alternatives to China's Belt and Road financing; stabilizing global economic systems.
WTO
Defending rules-based trade order, countering coercive economic practices (despite internal challenges).
APEC
Defending liberal norms in human rights, cybersecurity, development cooperation (even if operational effectiveness is uneven).
UN System (selectively)
Defending liberal norms in human rights, cybersecurity, development cooperation (even if operational effectiveness is uneven).