RELEASE EMBARGO DATE: MAY 1, 2013 AT 9 AM

Panel: How is the G-20 Dealing with Disorder? (Grand BallroomⅢ)
Date/Time: Wednesday, May 1, 2013 / 09:00-10:15
Talking Points for: Thomas Wright, The Brookings Institution

1. The G-20 succeeded in averting a great depression in 2008 and 2009 but the underlying weakness in the international economic order remains. This order is now widely perceived by much of the rest of the world, especially Asian countries, as volatile and crisis prone. Countries will increasingly hedge against the perceived risks of the open global economy.
2. Unfortunately, the forum is too large and unwieldy to allow for substantive discussions between the United States and China or the United States and other emerging powers. The United States will need to find other ways to develop meaningful dialogs with these actors.
3. More generally, we should ask how western and emerging powers are managing the international order as a whole. The United States is too focused on multilateral forums and issues dating back to the Cold War and has much less success in increasing cooperation on more recent problems. It is time for a “multilateral pivot” where the United States puts these problems (arising from new technologies of warfare, maritime disputes, energy) at the centerpiece of its diplomacy.