A Study Of The Predicament Of Global Governance And The Group Of Twenty

With the tide of globalization continually pushing forward, there has been growing interdependence between all economies. Global problems have emerged one after another, the range of which is constantly expanding. As these problems directly entail the prospect and destiny of the human kind as a whole, the international community is gradually becoming the community of a shared destiny. International coordination and cooperation is thus needed, which serves as trigger for practical needs of global governance. The current global governance system was born out of the hegemonic governance system built by the US-led western powers. From World War Ⅱ to the early 1970s, it was US hegemonic governance system based on the Bretton Woods system while since the mid-1970s, it has been the global governance system led by US and other western powers. This paper analyzes the serious difficulties of the existing system of global governance and the role that G20 should play in improving global governance using methods of literature research, case studies and comparative analysis. Today, we are still facing great difficulties in dealing with the current global governance. The difficulties, if put in a more specific way, are the ones that concern the value of global governance, the legitimacy of global governance, the effectiveness of governance as well as the high cost and bad performance of the traditional governance system. We need to find a breakthrough to improve global governance. The Group of twenty (also known as G20) was founded after the Asian Financial crisis and has come to the forefront during the 2008 financial crisis. It has upgraded itself from a ministerial meeting to a leadership summit, become the core platform of global governance and achieved remarkable success in dealing with the crisis. Meanwhile, G20 has gathered rich experience in global governance when dealing with the crisis. The distinct systematic advantage of it lies in its mechanism of leadership summit and of informal, multilateral platform, which, to some extent, has helped to resolve some of the systematic problems in global governance. G20 is irreplaceable from this perspective, and it can be a breakthrough to improve the global governance. Currently with world economy recovering at a slow pace, people are more vocal about G20 being unwanted or in decline. However, we can draw a conclusion that G20 will not enter a recession by analyzing the trend of the development. G20 should take measures to solve the problem of the lack of driving force and identify the role it should play in global governance. In the future, G20 need to improve its own mechanism while maintaining the informality of the regime. G20 is acting as and should continue to act as the core platform in global governance. Firstly, G20 should be the bridge between developed countries and the emerging countries promoting the two groups of G7 and BRICS to adjust their interest objectives, coordinate policies and reach a consensus about the solutions of global problems, which contributes to strike a necessary dynamic balance between G7 and BRICS. Secondly, G20, as the core platform in the global governance system, should take the lead and make decisions in the future, while it falls upon the more matured formal regimes to promote the implementation of G20’s resolutions. These regimes include IMF and World Bank which play a role in the world economic governance as well as the UN which safeguard the international security. A special body responsible for communication and cooperation with the UN, IMF and World Bank should be established within the G20 to ensure the successful implementation of resolutions passed on the leadership summit and other meetings. Last but not least, in order to be more legitimate and effective, G20 should enhance its cooperation with regional organizations, global civil society as well as NGOs and help to improve the global governance.