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Introduction
Over the last several decades, governments have collectively pledged to slow global warming. But despite intensified diplomacy, the world is already facing the consequences of climate…
Five Things to Know About the G20
February 15, 2012 12:37 pm (EST)
- Explainer Video
As Mexico prepares to welcome the first meeting of the Group of Twenty (G20) foreign ministers--representing the world’s major and top emerging economies--this weekend, Stewart M. Patrick, senior fellow and director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations, outlines five things to know about the G20.
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- The G20’s origins date back to the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s. It operated out of the public’s gaze before rising to the fore at the height of the global financial crisis in 2008.
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- With global economic stability restored, the G20 faces a new challenge as member countries begin to reassert their national interests.
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- The G20 saved the world from a debilitating 1930s-style depression and has also been able to push reform in other international institutions to reflect the world as it exists, as opposed to the world in 1945 when those institutions were created.
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- The G20 has also empowered the International Monetary Fund.
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- The future of the G20 remains unknown as the scope of its mission continues to be debated. "When you get twenty world leaders into a room together, it’s almost impossible to limit the agenda," Patrick says.
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This video is part of The Internationalist, a series dedicated to in-depth discussions about leveraging multilateral cooperation to meet today’s transnational challenges.
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