F06: From Open Society to Tactical Shape-shifting

Bottom Line

Civil society worldwide is being forced to transform. Social sector institutions—universities, independent media, cultural organisations, advocacy NGOs and humanitarian agencies—were built for a world organised under a post-WWII rules-based order that, while flawed and exclusionary, was a comprehensible system for international engagement. Now these organisations, institutions and movements must fundamentally respond to increasingly hostile environments around climate disruption, extreme inequality, AI-driven technological change and consolidating authoritarian power across the US, India, Russia, China and elsewhere. Legal institutions and international agreements that once balanced power have been degraded and ignored.

Authoritarian governance, operating through state, corporate and transnational channels, is targeting the infrastructure of expression and dissent: academic freedom, investigative journalism, freedom of association, cross-border funding and the basic acceptance of facts. It threatens legal standing, withholds funds and threatens violence for non-compliance. Meanwhile, humanitarian and rights organisations must operate within the same systems that produce the harms they address.

These dynamics force civil society to remain visible enough to claim space, while becoming opaque enough to survive. This isn't a contradiction but a sequencing problem. Organisations are learning which aspects should be visible—when, to whom and for how long. To survive, they must shape-shift to meet those they serve, and connect with partners and funders in new ways, while reducing exposure to attack. Shape-shifting isn't selling out. It's sequencing—knowing which face to show, to whom, and when. 

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