Reach her at amnahashmee@gmail.comPower in international politics is mostly linked with acts of decisiveness, or military intervention, sanctions, vetoes, recognition or denial. Yet one of the most influential powers of the present day is in a much less obvious form: delay. Waiting, increasingly, is not an accident of global governance but a technique of it. Delay stabilises conflict and does not resolve it, which lets powerful actors handle crises instead of ending them. If delay is now a tool of power, then global governance must be judged not only by what it decides but by whom it keeps waiting and for how long.