Paris Peace Forum's Justin Vaïsse on a post-American world

As the United States steps back from the multilateral system it helped build, the question of global leadership grows louder: who leads next?

At the 2025 Paris Peace Forum, founder and director general Justin Vaïsse tells GZERO Media’s Tony Maciulis that Washington’s retreat has left “holes in the system,” from climate action to global health, forcing countries to rethink alliances.

“Many nations don’t want to be constrained by the US-China competition,” Vaïsse says. “They want good relations with both, without depending on either.”

That vision anchors this year’s Forum theme, New Coalitions for Peace, People & the Planet, a call for cooperation in an increasingly fragmented world. Vaïsse points to France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, as one of the few leaders still “injecting energy into the system” by bringing global actors to the table.

This conversation is part of GZERO Media’s Global Stage series, presented in partnership with Microsoft.