Global Governance 2020 and Global Policy

GG 2020 - 7th April 2010

By Tom Hale

All politics may be local, but, as this journal demonstrates, policy is more and more global. That is to say, political processes are often driven by narrow interests and domestic political institutions, but the implications of our decisions stretch around the globe.

A casual glace at the news confirms this disjuncture. I just opened the New York Times homepage and found the three top stories were on climate change, financial regulation, and nonproliferation. A glance at papers in Europe or in China reveals similar concerns. These global issues do not belong to the esoteric realm of diplomacy but rather to publics and policymakers everywhere – hence the need to think about these problems in an explicitly global way.

Global Policy is one step toward a global dialogue about coordinated responses to the aforementioned challenges; Global Governance 2020 is another. Global Governance 2020 brings together 24 young policy leaders (eight from China, eight from Germany, and eight from the US) to discuss global issues that adorn the front pages of newspapers around the world: nuclear proliferation, climate change, and financial regulation. At a series of meetings in Berlin, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C., we are seeking innovative solutions to these challenges. And through this blog we’re hoping to involve you, Global Policy readers, in the debate.

Exchanges like Global Governance 2020 often have an idealistic bent, as if global togetherness were valuable in and of itself. Be that as it may, for us it is also a necessary condition for the successful resolution of the day’s most important policy problems.

Consider each the issues we’ve decided to focus on. There will be no solution to climate change unless the United States and China, which together emit more than 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse gasses, dramatically reduce their emissions. Just one of these countries, alone, could wreck climatic devastation on the world if it continues business as usual. This means that what happens to the Maldives, to the Irrawaddy Delta, to the Horn of Africa—not to mention the US Gulf Coast or the Yangtze River delta—depends on a few votes in the U.S. Senate and a few opaque deals amongst competing coal and manufacturing interests in China.

Financial governance is equally interconnected. As we observed over the last few years, the actions of large banks and traders in wealthy countries and the inaction of government regulators unleashed the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Saving the global economy required unprecedented policy coordination through the G-20; protecting it in the future will require even greater cooperation in the form of common regulatory standards. The world will also have to address the threat of trade and current account imbalances between Asia and the rest of the world, and particularly, again, between the United States and China.

Lastly, regarding non-proliferation, the existing international regime centered around the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty is in crisis and no one knows what will follow it. The only thing that is clear is that the clubby arrangement that divided the world into nuclear haves and have-nots—a product of the Cold War balance of power—has proven unsustainable. For a new regime to work, it will have to meet the interests of a far more diverse group of countries.

The crucial point is this: there will be no sustainability, no prosperity, and no security unless we have effective global policymaking.  And effective global policymaking requires bringing together a diverse range of interests. That’s why we’re working together through Global Governance 2020, and that’s why we’re excited to be sharing our discussions with you through this blog.

We’ll be commenting on global policy issues as they arise, keeping the wider world abreast of our debates, and responding to your comments.  Naturally, we don’t always agree. You’ll find us getting into hard-hitting debates in this space just as often as working together in a cooperative spirit of global problem-solving. And we do hope you’ll get involved. The GG2020 team has already had some heady discussions at our first meeting in Berlin. We will have plenty more at our upcoming meetings in Shanghai and Washington. We hope you’ll use this platform to join us.