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Toward more inclusive informal global governance: a view from South Africa.

Article Excerpt
South Africa may support a proposal to establish an L-20 because the concept recognizes the value of informal clubs in moving forward processes of global governance. However, the devil is in the details: Who would take the initiative to set up an L-20? How would membership criteria be determined? What would be the rules of engagement, and how would they be developed? These questions would be crucial in ensuring that an L-20 was based not only on shared responsibility, but also shared ownership.

South Africa and Global Governance

Since South Africa's reentry into the international community in 1994, the country has been a very willing and active participant in global affairs, with a particular commitment to the development of a rules-based multilateral framework. As such, South Africa has been a strong advocate for reform of the UN system and the Bretton Woods institutions, and the creation of a more equitable political and economic global order.

Democratic South Africa's policy on global governance has highlighted four key objectives. A first aim has been to build effective multilateralism as a vehicle for achieving more equitable global governance. While power in the international system is distributed unevenly, multilateralism provides for it to be exercised within a rules-based framework rather than arbitrarily. South Africa has perceived the actions of the United States since 9/11 as undermining progress in this regard, entrenching the exercise of arbitrary power by the strong against the weak.

Second, South Africa has aimed to develop African solidarity on issues of global governance. Other African states are acutely aware of South Africa's economic dominance on the continent, and the country is wary of being characterized as "big brother." This caution often acts as a rein on the positions that South...

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