"Middle powers neither command the international system nor submit passively to it." Discuss how coalitions of middle powers can keep multilateral cooperation going.

Middle powers are states with regional influence, economic weight and credible diplomatic networks. They lack the capacity to dictate global rules but are too consequential to be mere rule-takers. As great-power rivalry fragments the order, Canadian PM Mark Carney at Davos (January 2026) urged them to act together [1]. Coalitions are the means by which they become stabilisers of multilateralism.

Agency between command and submission

• They draw leverage from strategic positioning, economic weight and diplomatic agility, not military dominance.
• India's multi-alignment illustrates this: it works in the Quad as well as in BRICS and the SCO, without joining any bloc.

How middle-power coalitions sustain cooperation

• Institutional workarounds: when the WTO Appellate Body was paralysed, the EU, Canada and Norway built on their arrangements to launch the MPIA (2020) [2]. It now covers 62 WTO members and about 60% of world trade [3].
• Bridge-building and consensus: India's G20 presidency produced a consensus declaration despite the Ukraine divide, and admitted the African Union as a permanent member [4].
• Agenda-setting for the Global South: the Voice of Global South Summit brought in 125 countries [5], and their priorities fed into the G20.
• Norm entrepreneurship: groupings like MIKTA push for rule-based cooperation [6]. IBSA and the India–France-led International Solar Alliance advance issue-specific norms.

Limits

• Divergent interests dilute collective positions, and informal clubs risk becoming talk-shops.
• They have no enforcement power and still depend on great powers for security and markets, which leaves them open to tariff coercion.

Middle-power coalitions cannot replace great-power leadership. They can, however, keep the machinery of cooperation running through flexible, issue-based partnerships. India should combine its strategic autonomy with coalition leadership. It should push for reformed multilateralism (including UNSC reform), back stopgap arrangements, and champion the Global South. That would serve SDG 17 (partnerships) and the G20 vision of "One Earth, One Family, One Future".