After decades of establishing inter- and trans-national relationships and partnerships to solve humanity’s problems, in 2015 the UN adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a ‘blueprint’ for developed and developing countries to come together in concert to solve international problems. Five years later, in the midst of a global pandemic of COVID-19, fracturing national and global economies, and a rise of nationalist and isolationist leaders such as US President Trump, fears are being heard more and more often – from the public, from NGOs, and from governments alike – that the SDGs will not foster the significant action, changes, and partnerships required to meet their targets and stave off intensifying international calamities. With the future of the SDGs in jeopardy, this Global Insights panel asks: How sustainable are the Sustainable Development Goals? Are they still the transformative medium for global partnerships we hoped for, or are states once again ‘talking the talk’ but not walking the walk?