G20 Governance for an Inclusive Liberal Order

Abstract

The Group of Twenty (G20) was created first at the ministerial level and later upgraded to the summit level as a response to the global financial crises that first erupted from Asia in 1997, and then from the US in 2008 and Europe in 2010. These crises called into question the core principles and practices of the liberal order based on the economic, social and political openness that had been progressively internationally institutionalized since 1944. The G20 was designed with a dual distinctive foundational mission to promote financial stability and to make globalization work for all. It combined all established and emerging economies with high capability and connectivity, to operate as equals, to protect all within their borders and those beyond. It increasingly did so since its first summit in 2008. Its performance spiked at the summit in Hangzhou, China, on 3–4 September, 2016, and again at Hamburg, Germany, on 7–8 July, 2017. The latter coped with the new populist, protectionist US president and UK prime minister, whose countries had hosted the first three summits. G20-supported initiatives and agreements for full free trade have advanced since the first summit in 2008. No other center of global summit governance has emerged to guide an increasingly globalized world. The G20 has also steadily become an effective governor of global security. As the forces that propelled this rise will intensify, the Argentinian-hosted G20 summit on 30 November–1 December, 2018, promises to proceed along this path. It is guided by a country again afflicted by a financial crisis but now dedicated to following the core liberal order and making it work better for all. The real test will arrive in 2019, when Japan as host must co-operate with Korea and China, its neighbouring Asian powers and previous G20 hosts, to provide a new center of inclusive, progressive, liberal global governance that the world badly needs.