On Monday, the Starling Institute was incredibly fortunate to bring together a room of great people who build, fund, lead, learn, and argue about international cooperation for a living around a few tables for a thoughtful conversation.

That's very much part of our DNA—finding promising ideas from inspiring people, and helping those people work together to turn those ideas into transformative change. The collective insight and collective experience from this group was amazing.

Our Board very much reflects that same spirit. Nick Grono described the mission as simultaneously being clear-eyed about what's broken without abandoning the aspiration and hard work of building something better.

Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya noted the importance of making sure voices from the Global South are actually heard in New York and beyond. Irina Petrova made the case that a strong, independent civil society and NGO ecosystem are a bulwark of building more effective international cooperation. Bob Orr spoke to the importance of making sure diverse stakeholders are heard during a time of geopolitical turmoil.

Anne-Marie Slaughter gave us a new way to picture what's emerging in the world today — not competing blocs, but a world where countries are “multi-aligned” working with different constellations of countries and partners on an issue-by-issue basis. And Ambassador Chola Milambo, Ph.D. of Zambia urged us to remember that collective action from those states least represented at the UN is necessary but not inevitable – it has to be organized.

We came away energized, challenged, and grateful — for the ideas, the candor, and the company.