An International Conference on Living on the Threshold of Global Crises

Although there have been no wars between major powers after the Second World War, we have witnessed several armed state-based conflicts. The years 2022, 2023, and 2024 alone recorded 52, 59, and 61 conflicts respectively, the highest annual figures since 1946. At present, genocides and mass atrocities continue to unfold across Africa and Asia, including in the Middle East, reflecting patterns of exploitation and geopolitical manipulation rooted in historic power asymmetries between the Global North and the Global South.

Meanwhile, the Global South has markedly increased its arms imports between 2019 and 2025, as noted by recent SIPRI reports, indicating growing militarization and insecurity. The international order itself is undergoing a significant change as the world transitions from unipolarity to multipolarity, with the rivalry between the United States and China reaching a critical threshold across domains of trade, technology, and global influence.

International law has faced unprecedented challenges, and many observers draw parallels between the current performance of the United Nations and the failure of the League of Nations. Simultaneously, the nature of warfare has evolved from conventional bombs to bio-labs, cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, and electromagnetic warfare tactics such as jamming, spoofing, and hacking defence systems even before physical engagements occur. Increasingly, starvation, rape and forced displacements are being used as weapons of war.

There is also a growing transformation of the nuclear order, with some states operating close to the thresholds of nuclear weapons use, brandishing nuclear-armed weapons without fully crossing the line into detonation, thereby redefining deterrence and risk in the 21st Century. What do all these developments mean for the ordinary people of the world who live under the shadow of global crises, impacted as they are by distressing factors such as poverty and climate change?

Against this backdrop, The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs is convening a two-day international conference on Living on the Threshold of Global Crises, on 9-10 May 2026, to examine the shifting patterns of conflict, deterrence, and diplomacy in an era marked by uncertainty and the reconfiguration of the world order.