Chatham House launches Global Governance and Security Centre
News release
jon.wallace
12 September 2025
Launched on 9 September, the new Centre’s research and convening will explore how to improve global governance to inform a new international order.
Chatham House launched its new Global Governance and Security Centre on 9 September, with an event, ‘Is Geneva Heading South?’, exploring Geneva’s struggles as a centre of international diplomacy, followed by a reception in St James’s Square.
The new centre draws together experts from Chatham House’s International Security, International Law, Digital Society and Global Health Programmes with a brief to pursue improved global governance and institutional reform.
Samir Puri, Director of the new Centre, said:
‘We are launching the Centre to explore the long-term outlook for international order, asking the question: if the current international order is fading, what will replace it?
‘To that end, our Law Programme will identify emerging new international governance frameworks, highlighting more stable trends and likely outcomes, making this process more transparent for practitioners, academics, and business. I am pleased to say we will be joined by Professor Marc Weller to lead our work on these topics.
‘Our International Security Programme will explore how to enhance security in Europe, the implications of rising defence budgets, and the results of the US long-term focus on deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. It will also examine cutting edge issues relating to the future of arms control, including artificial intelligence’s impact on nuclear stability. We are delighted that General Sir Richard Barrons joins the programme as a senior advisor this month.
‘Our Digital Society Programme will examine the role of Global South countries in future governance of pioneering technologies, and how, despite the zero-sum tech contests between the US and China, some regions may end with a mixed set of technological dependencies.
‘And our Global Health Programme will research issues of strategic national importance, such as vaccine stockpiling, and of collective global importance, such as pandemic preparedness – at a time of US retreat, declining Western aid budgets, and more empowered Global South countries.
‘Working together our centre programmes will seize opportunities to collaborate on answering the broader question of how to build global governance in a turbulent age.
‘I am delighted to see the Centre launched today and look forward to collaborating with policymakers, business leaders, civil society and Chatham House members to produce work that makes a real impact in shaping a rapidly evolving world order.’