As the post–Cold War consensus frays and the “rules-based order” loses moral authority, a different set of actors is moving from the margins to the centre of global politics. Middle powers—once defined largely by middling GDP or force structure—now have more weight in international relations because of what they do, not just what they have. Their leverage stems from entrepreneurial diplomacy, coalition-building, and norm-setting in spaces where great powers are gridlocked or disinterested. In this landscape, multipolarity does not simply disperse power; it multiplies opportunities for states with regional reach and institutional agility to shape outcomes.
This chapter argues that middle powers are becoming agencies of multipolarity: they buffer escalation, stitch together ad-hoc institutions, and refresh normative agendas that the liberal order can no longer credibly sustain on its own. Rather than choosing sides in a binary contest, they practice issue-by-issue alignment—mediating conflicts, brokering functional cooperation on food security, supply chains, climate, and migration, and advancing reforms to make global governance more representative. Türkiye, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa and others illustrate this shift: their diplomacy is pragmatic yet value-laden, aiming to convert regional legitimacy into system-level influence.
The discussion proceeds in three steps. First, the concept of the “middle power” is recast from a material category to a behavioural role, drawing on scholarship that emphasises mediation, coalition leadership, and norm entrepreneurship. Second, these roles are situated within a fragmenting order where unilateral great-power practices collide with complex interdependence, thereby creating both risks and entry points. Third, the case of Türkiye as a responsible middle power is developed—linking concrete initiatives (from UN reform advocacy to humanitarian statecraft and conflict mediation) to a broader strategy of principled, practical multilateralism. The result is a framework for understanding how middle powers can temper disorder not by restoring the old order, but by renewing its most functional and inclusive components.
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