Global Asia

Dear Reader,

Every so often in history, events of such unpredictability and sweeping consequence occur that they unsettle the very foundations of the way we think. They are what Nassim Nicholas Taleb called “Black Swans” in his 2007 book of that title — those outlying probabilities that seem so distant one simply can’t even imagine them happening. But when they do, the world is forever changed.

The financial crisis that began in the US in 2007 and engulfed the rest of the world the year after was such a black swan. In a matter of months, the crisis had swept away the certitudes of the so-called Washington Consensus that had defined and embodied the gospel of globalization since the end of World War II. Or so it seemed.

Perhaps no single response to the crisis better captured the widespread sense that the world had changed than the emergence of the Group of 20 nations (G-20) as the forum for coordinated international action to avert another Great Depression. Since the 1970s, the G-7 or the G-8 — the elite club of the world’s richest nations — had called the shots. But with the ideology of the rich in tatters, the time for more inclusive global leadership had arrived.

Successive summits of G-20 leaders in Washington, London and Pittsburgh led to massive, coordinated stimulus packages that quickly stabilized financial markets and pulled the world economy back from the brink of depression. The enlarged forum of the G-20 — which includes five Asian countries compared to one in the G-8 — had demonstrated impressive leadership. So much so, that at the Pittsburgh summit in June 2009, the G-20 celebrated itself as the new forum for future international economic leadership, effectively replacing the G-8. Or so it seemed.

At the G-20 summit in Toronto this June, with both developed and developing economies each beginning to experience divergent growth paths and different problems, G-20 leaders ceased to speak and act with one voice. Whispers emerged that maybe the world hadn’t really changed that much after all. But with the global economy still in a fragile recovery and the risk of another nasty downturn once again conceivable, the stakes are high for everyone. The need for more inclusive global leadership is more important than ever.

That is why we have devoted the cover package in this issue of Global Asia to the fifth G-20 leaders summit, to be held in Seoul Nov. 10 to 11. It comes at a time when the credibility and future role of the G-20 is in question. More important, it comes at a time when the host, South Korea, is leading efforts to push the issue of development as a way for the G-20 to reach out to the 172 countries not in the group. In doing so, South Korea hopes the G-20 will serve as a continuous bridge between the developed world and the developing, reinforcing its relevance as a forum for global leadership.

The agenda for the Seoul G-20 summit is, indeed, ambitious. SaKong Il, the Chairman of South Korea’s Presidential Committee for the G-20 Summit, outlines that agenda and what is at stake in the opening piece of our cover package. We are very pleased that he agreed to contribute this to Global Asia.

We are also especially grateful that Prof. Choong Yong Ahn of Chung-Ang University, Seoul — who also serves on Global Asia’s Editorial Board — and Prof. Barry Eichengreen of the University of California, Berkeley, agreed to serve as guest editors of our cover package.

Sincerely yours,

Chung-in Moon, Editor-in-Chief

David Plott, Managing Editor