The global coalition that stood for Ukraine: comparing the role of transnational networks in tackling the global food and security crises

The surprisingly firm reaction of the European Union to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has set a significant precedent in international cooperation. A coalition of countries from North America, Europe, East Asia and beyond have formed an intricate set of informal transnational groupings to coordinate their response. Yet, not all these transnational elite networks (TENs) have been equally successful or equally global in scale. This case presented us with an opportunity to study the conditions under which TENs are successful in promoting international solidarity. We argue that TENs’ successful promotion of ultrasocial ideas depends on (1) the presence of an ultrasocial network leader (or leaders), (2) the characteristic of the ultrasocial idea itself and (3) the characteristics of the cooperation problem at hand. We test these propositions by exploring the role of TENs in promoting international solidarity to tackle the food and security crises that stemmed from the war. Among other things, the paper provides a systematic effort to include international solidarity in IR theory and shed light on TENs’ potential for transformational change in international cooperation. It also explores the role and place of the European Union within the TEN’s and their efforts of promoting, sustaining and enacting international solidarity towards Ukraine.