OCTOBER 2024
Great Power Competition
in the Multilateral System
By Daniel F. Runde and Austin Hardman
Introduction
The landscape of great power competition within multilateral institutions has signicantly evolved over
the past few decades, reecting broader shifts in global power dynamics. The United States, historically
dominant in these forums, now faces increasing competition from China and other emerging powers.
Absent of a challenger, China is gaining inuence within the international institutions that the United
States has created, funded, and legitimized. China’s strategic positioning and substantial investments
in multilateral bodies have allowed it to exert considerable inuence, particularly within the United
Nations system.
China’s approach includes placing its citizens in key leadership positions, increasing stang, and
boosting unearmarked nancial contributions to multilateral institutions. This stratey not only
enhances China’s inuence over global policies but also promotes its development model and
geopolitical interests in the Global South. Despite being the largest nancial contributor to many
international organizations, the United States has seen a relative decline in its inuence, partly due
to nancial constraints, strategic missteps, and underrepresentation in stang. Building on the 2021
CSIS report The Future of U.S. Leadership in Multilateral Development Institutions: A Playbook
for the Next 10 Years, this policy brief presents recent trends regarding the Global South’s growing
alignment with China and suggests ways for the United States to reclaim its inuence within the
multilateral system.
China’s Rising Inuence in the Multilateral System
Multilateral institutions play a crucial role in collaborative governance and consensus building,
reecting broader shifts in global power structures. Since their inception nearly eight decades ago,
the United States has maintained a preeminent norm-setting role in these institutions, leveraging its
economic and political inuence to shape international agendas and advocate for Western values.
However, this inuence has been steadily declining, coinciding with the rise of China as a formidable
