Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn
    Monday, July 4
    Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn RSS
    Nalin Mehta
    • Home
    • The New BJP
    • Books
    • Columns
      • Politics & Current Affairs
      • Sports
      • Media
      • Public Policy
    • Videos
    • Research Articles
    • Media
    • About
    Nalin Mehta
    You are at:Home » Blog » G20 OR G-NOWHERE?
    Politics & Current Affairs

    G20 OR G-NOWHERE?

    Nalin MehtaBy Nalin MehtaNovember 15, 2010Updated:April 1, 2015No Comments5 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email

    Other countries host the G20 as a closed-door confabulation of leaders, wrapped up in a cocoon of water-tight security lest the usual legions of protesters outside spoil the party. South Korea has treated the latest Seoul meeting of the G20 as a coming-out party of sorts to showcase its own journey from poor East Asian basketcase to a member of the rich-countries club in just four decades.

    South Korean officials have said on record that in terms of projecting South Korea’s global reputation, they saw this summit meeting as a mega-event bigger than the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 2002 soccer World Cup they co-hosted with Japan.

    So TV advertisements in Seoul last week were telling its residents not to jump red-lights, throw litter or be disorderly and a collection of kitschy dolls depicting G20 leaders was put on display on a barge at the Seoul Lantern Festival. Never mind that the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was depicted at first in the Austrian national dress!

    The South Korean party notwithstanding, the big question this week after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s return to Delhi is the growing debate over the relevance of the G20 itself as an effective forum for global action.

    He has been satisfied that his suggestions to make global finance more responsive to developing country needs and ‘shared growth’ were accepted by the others and in a sense he has emerged as a sort of elder statesman in this grouping.

    But overall most analysts agree that what has primarily emerged from the Seoul G20 is a vague commitment to watch out for dangerous imbalances between economies and not to engage in monetary warfare.

    The meeting began with huge divides among its members and though by the end of it they agreed on a communiqué with a little something for everyone the global reactions have been far from positive. Most seasoned observers are doubting if any country will actually do anything different as a result of the commitments made at the summit.

    G20 heads of government met for the first time when the global economic crisis first became clear in 2008 and they have met five times since those inaugural summit level talks. During that acute crisis, world leaders looked like they were pulling together so much so that the South Koreans have even hyped up the grouping as a “steering committee of the world.” That optimism is fast fading away.

    The G20 was supposed to replace the earlier G8 as a forum for global governance by bringing the other big players who mattered in a changing world order. The old forum was basically the white, western world plus Japan so reform was a good idea but it has run into a fundamental problem.

    In the old days, every member of the elite club essentially agreed on the basic fundamentals of globalisation and on a broad ideological consensus on the system they wanted to move towards, which was predicated on the post-second World War Breton-Woods principles.

    That consensus has broken down, the old ideas – which at their heart were meant to bring everyone else in line with the West – don’t work anymore and there has been a profound shift in global power and economic patterns.

    The sparring between Beijing and Washington on currency rates is an obvious example but there is a fundamental divide today between countries running large deficits today and those that are running large surpluses. Germany for instance has been more critical of recent US economic policy than even China.

    At a deeper level though we are seeing a leadership vacuum in as much as the United States is a much diminished power, the European are frantically hanging on to delusions of past grandeur and the new giants like China and to a lesser extent, India, are still coming to grips with the responsibilities of sitting on the global high power.

    Put simply, the older members can’t impose solutions like they did earlier and in any case are divided. The newer ones are still coming to terms with their new status and psychologically at some level still haven’t changed their mind-sets to think of themselves as the real new big boys in town. As Gideon Rachman, the author of a new book, Zero-Sum World, has argued, “far from being a solution to the world’s most urgent problems, the G20 looks increasingly divided, ineffectual and illegitimate.”

    For the near future then, we have a much messier, uncertain world. India’s role will be crucial in this shifting power dynamic. This is why during Obama’s visit to India, PM Singh’s decision to back the US Fed’s recent moves to buy $600 billion in US Treasury bonds to boost the economy was perhaps as important as other high octane talk on the UN Security Council and Pakistan.

    India is the only major country to back Washington on this so publicly. Others including Germany and China have been very critical and Delhi’s position drew big headlines internationally, though it was barely noticed in the Indian press. As an embattled Obama increasingly looking towards Manmohan Singh for support, this is one international equation that will be perhaps as important to watch in the near future as any G20 meeting.

    diplomacy economic policy G20 international relations United States
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Previous ArticleMEMO TO BJP: RELAX ON OBAMA
    Next Article NEEDED: A RAKHI SAWANT LAW
    Nalin Mehta
    • Website
    • Twitter

    Professor Nalin Mehta is Dean, School of Modern Media, UPES; Advisor, Global University Systems and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University Singapore. He is an award-winning social scientist, journalist and author who has held senior leadership positions in major Indian media companies; international financing institutions like the Global Fund in Geneva, Switzerland; taught and held research positions at universities and institutions in Australia (ANU, La Trobe University), Singapore (NUS), Switzerland (International Olympic Museum) and India (IIM Bangalore, Shiv Nadar University).

    Related Posts

    To take on Chinese ‘wolf warriors’, India must fix military asymmetry

    August 9, 2021

    ‘We have tried to remove retrograde provisions and policies in J&K governance … militancy is slowly petering out’

    August 8, 2021

    ‘We want companies leaving China to come to India instead of going to Vietnam or elsewhere’

    August 8, 2021

    Comments are closed.

    Tags
    2002 riots Army Asian Games BJP BSP China Commonwealth Games communal violence Congress corruption Cricket defence Delhi diplomacy education Godhra Gujarat Hindutva hockey Indian Army internal security international relations IPL Kashmir Mayawati media and politics military Modi Narendra Modi Nehru Olympics OROP Pakistan Parliament politics of sports Punjab Rahul Gandhi RBI Rio 2016 television terrorism United States UP Uttar Pradesh West Bengal
    Archives
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    Don't Miss

    Nalin Mehta Writes: 5 Reasons Christophe Jaffrelot and Ashoka University Data on BJP, Caste Are Wrong

    Why women vote for India PM Narendra Modi’s BJP

    A Revival Of India’s Grand Old Party? -Barkha Dutt

    The BJP has changed the old rules of politics

    About

    Professor Nalin Mehta is Dean, School of Modern Media, UPES; Advisor, Global University Systems an Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University Singapore. He is an award-winning social scientist, journalist and author who has held senior leadership positions in major Indian digital, print and TV news companies; been a communications expert with international financing institutions and the UN in Geneva, Switzerland; taught and held research positions at universities and institutions in Australia, Singapore, Switzerland and India.

    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn RSS
    Recent Posts

    Nalin Mehta Writes: 5 Reasons Christophe Jaffrelot and Ashoka University Data on BJP, Caste Are Wrong

    April 30, 2022

    Why women vote for India PM Narendra Modi’s BJP

    April 19, 2022

    A Revival Of India’s Grand Old Party? -Barkha Dutt

    April 19, 2022
    Tweets by ‎@nalinmehta

    Tweets by nalinmehta

    Copyright © 2022
    • Home
    • The New BJP
    • Books
    • Columns
      • Politics & Current Affairs
      • Sports
      • Media
      • Public Policy
    • Videos
    • Research Articles
    • Media
    • About

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.