Seven decades ago, a new global order emerged. However, as the COVID-19 pandemic rages across the planet, those older ways of being are under unprecedented stress. Already, a new world order is taking shape—one that will put long-standing agenda items like trade, commerce and defence on the backburner. In a post-pandemic world, they will be edged out by issues like climate change, holistic healthcare, education for innovation and creativity, as well as the management of frontier technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain and big data. Human dignity and human rights will be critical issues in this modern reality. To represent the changed actuality of the twenty-first century, global governance needs fresh ideas and novel institutions.