The world is experiencing the highest number of violent conflicts since the Second World War, with 2 billion people living in conflict-affected areas and over 100 million people forcibly displaced and new daunting new threats. But since the Covid pandemics and the invasion of Ukraine, donor countries have shifted their budget priorities to national economies and defense spending and diminished their involvement in peace activities and support to civil society. In parallel, conflicts have been increasingly fueled by regional interference and seen a multiplication of proxies on the ground.  At a time when UN peacemaking and peacekeeping operations are being seriously challenged, new actors, such as China, Brazil or Turkey, are tempted to offer mediation services. In the “New Agenda for Peace”, a policy brief on the future of multilateral security cooperation launched in July 2023, the UN Secretary-General also calls for greater inter-governmental engagement on global risks in a context of heightened major-power competition and unequal international order. This session will explore how to mitigate the effects of geopolitical competition and assess the different approaches to peace. It will also discuss how the “New Agenda for Peace” can play a role in bridging the “trust” gap between North and South as between East and West.