F&D Magazine

Danny Quah on Rethinking Multilateralism

DANNY QUAH

September 17, 2025

Courtesy of Danny Quah

In This Episode

Bringing nations together to maintain peace and security and raise living standards for all seemed a utopian idea in the early 20th century. Still, geopolitics, economics and vision by world leaders eventually came together to make it a reality. But what happens when the great powers that have been supporting the multilateral system decide it’s not working for them anymore? Danny Quah has studied the increase in global economic tensions and sees the rising East as an important factor. Quah is the Li Ka Shing Professor of Economics at the National University of Singapore. In this podcast, he says that while economics and geopolitics worked together to build the multilateral rules-based system, they are now working together to break it apart. Transcript

Read the article in the IMF's Finance & Development magazine

DANNY QUAH is Li Ka Shing Professor of Economics at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. 

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