Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | G | Global Governance

Summit reform: the good and the bad news.

Article Excerpt
This essay argues that the case for creating an L-20 process is compelling. This is a mechanism that could effectively socialize leaders into thinking about global problems more responsibly, with an "all things considered" perspective. However, the biggest obstacle to getting it going will not be an institutional issue, but the fact that many countries in the world simply do not take global problems like nuclear proliferation and global warming as seriously as is necessary to make good faith attempts to address them.

Paul Martin's L-20 proposal has a number of virtues that, at first glance, make it an appropriate mix of realism and idealism. Its objective is to promote multilateral governance without a utopian blueprint. It promotes a more representative world order without wishing away the fact that some countries do carry more weight than others. It recognizes that the world needs new global institutions to adapt to new challenges and realities of power, but that these innovations need to be crafted gradually. It is original in acknowledging that any workable group capable of addressing the world's problems will have to mix developed and developing countries. But the scheme positions "developed" and "developing" together in a format that seeks to overcome the barriers that these labels often erect. The L-20 proposal makes way for new powers like India and China, without simply marginalizing the old like Canada or Germany. It recognizes that domestic politics within most countries, and the realities of power in the international system, often produce global deadlocks. But while recognizing these structural constraints, it does...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!