Why G20 may represent the future of global affairs

THE just-ended G20 summit, which secured a landmark global corporate minimum tax deal, has nonetheless frustrated many, including with its failure to reach a stronger position on climate change to help energise the COP26 summit. Yet, despite the G20 forum's faults, it may still represent the "multilateralism-lite" future of international relations.

The past two centuries have seen fundamentally different approaches to the institutionalisation of foreign affairs. While the post-war era invested much hope in the building of multilateral organisations like the United Nations (UN) and Nato, the 19th century relied on great-power diplomacy without such structures, and it is from that past that our future may now be rooted with forums like the G20 and others like the G7 and Brics.

Further mass institutionalisation of international relations seems unlikely anytime soon, despite the enduring relevance of global action during the pandemic. Instead, we may be witnessing a return to concert diplomacy, albeit with key differences from that before. The Concert of Europe was a loosely organised governance of international affairs by the then great powers, but it is important to distinguish between at least 2 forms of such diplomacy. The first type of concert which characterised much of the 19th century, is a semi-permanent great-power coalition that is involved in long-term, joint management of international relations. In addition to European issues, the 19th century concert dealt with a global agenda, including piracy and navigation. It also played a pivotal role in the exportation of the European system of diplomacy across the world.