How Global Summitry Evolves: The Complementary Multilateralism Perspective

Abstract

Abstract The Group of Seven (G7) major Western industrial powers and the Group of Twenty (G20) systemically important economies have appeared in recent decades, their distinctly informal structures notwithstanding, as co-governors of world affairs. To address questions of global salience in regard to the nature of the two leadership fora’s intricate interrelationship, the article constructs a “complementary multilateralism” theoretical framework to shed light on that important symbiotic bond. Unlike the multi-multilateralism, hierarchical multilateralism, and contested multilateralism perspectives, which also describe and characterise interinstitutional relationships within international regime complexity, the complementary multilateralism approach focuses on complementarity between multilateral institutional bodies. After defining complementary multilateralism, the article traces the historical evolution and devolution of the G7 to the G20 and then elaborates on the process of complementary multilateralism entailed between the two Gs. Employing such novel research techniques as quantitative textual analytics and social network analysis, the article empirically uncovers a pattern of spontaneous division of labour, evident in the G7 working primarily with the United Nations’ organs to rein in non-economic aspects of global governance, and the G20 maintaining ties mainly with Bretton Woods institutions charged with international economic cooperation. Going forward, synergetic G7–G20 partnerships would be beneficial to producing favourable governance outcomes, in policy areas such as global health, tax justice, climate change, debt management, and the governance reform of the International Monetary Fund.