Top Takeaways from the G-20

For a second year running, world leaders gathered for a G-20 summit but refrained from posing for the traditional family photo. It turns out several Western leaders didn’t want to be seen with a Russian official—even if that person was Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and not President Vladimir Putin, who didn’t travel to New Delhi. Nor did Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a sign of growing tensions between China and India.

That’s not stopping New Delhi from spinning the weekend convening as a success. Contrary to expectations, the summit produced a joint statement. But it contained only a glancing mention of the war in Ukraine, with no reference to Russia’s aggression. Predictably, Moscow sees that as a diplomatic win; Kyiv is upset.

It makes sense that the world’s divisions would show up in a big global summit. There were, however, some important advances. The G-20 agreed to induct the 55-member African Union, dramatically expanding the group’s remit and dragging its center of gravity toward the global south. Perhaps as a result, one legacy from the weekend’s summit could be the start of moves to reform multilateral banks such as the World Bank, and the provision of more equitable loans to countries facing sovereign debt crises. (Read Darren Walker’s essay on this in FP.)

We’re in the thick of summit season. We’ve now concluded the summits of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the G-20; up next is the United Nations General Assembly. There’s a familiar feeling of same-old, same-old to these gatherings. Does anything ever get done? Our fall print issue, “The Most Important Alliances Now”, is online today and takes on that very question. And to whet your appetite, you might want to try out G. John Ikenberry’s take on why the G-7 has become what the White House calls “the steering committee of the free world.”—Ravi Agrawal, editor in chief

Today at FP

Defending Democracy

As youth populations around the world are increasingly disillusioned by establishment politics, this new generation’s leaders are turning to activism to drive institutional democratic change. Register to join Foreign Policy and the National Democratic Institute today at 10 a.m. EDT to highlight these youth leaders and explore what the future of democracy will look like.

Speakers include:

• U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D.-Calif.)
• Lu Argueta, secretary general, Latin American Youth Network for Democracy
• Marina Csikós, project officer, Phiren Amenca International Network
• Abby Finkenauer, special envoy for global youth issues, U.S. State Department Office of Global Youth Issues
• Eliud Luutsa, co-founder, Innobid, and Ye! advisor at the International Trade Centre in Kenya.

New & Noteworthy

• Samantha Power on the U.N. General Assembly: In her role as the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power is often thrust to the forefront of some of the world’s biggest crises—from steering U.S. humanitarian efforts in Ukraine to figuring out how to get aid to cash-strapped Sri Lanka. Power is also a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and plays a crucial role in the Biden administration’s foreign policy and diplomacy. Power joins FP editor in chief Ravi Agrawal on Sept. 15 for an FP Live conversation on the global food crisis, Russia’s war in Ukraine, strengthening democracy, and USAID’s climate strategy. Register now.
• A Chance for Mekong Diplomacy: “It’s not about containing China,” U.S President Joe Biden said from Hanoi on Sunday, of his visit to Vietnam. “It’s about having a stable base.” As Vietnam elevates the United States to its highest diplomatic status of “comprehensive strategic partner,” Brian Eyler writes that Biden’s renewed strategy in the Southeast Asian nation should center on a vital regional river: “Some critics worry that China and Russia, two of Vietnam’s other comprehensive strategic partners, could punish Vietnam for its choice to upgrade relations with the United States. But Vietnam can come out of this complicated diplomatic competition a clear winner by centering the U.S.-Vietnam collaboration on the Mekong—the mighty river that keeps both Vietnam and much of the rest of the world fed.”
• 2024 Looms Over U.S.-Mexico Relations: A spiral of escalatory rhetoric and next year’s near-simultaneous elections on both sides of the border  spell danger, but there is a way out, argues Ryan C. Berg. “The bilateral relationship will need to weather the storm of concurrent elections while ensuring a relationship robust enough to last long after the campaign rallies have faded from the headlines”—and that relationship should focus on repairing the essential economic relationship between the United States and its top trading partner.

More from FP Live

Inside Taiwan’s Foreign Policy

Competition between the United States and China affects the whole world, but no country is impacted as deeply as Taiwan. What are Taipei’s expectations of the Biden administration? How does it view Beijing’s ambitions? And as Taiwan gears up for elections at home and in the United States in 2024, how will foreign policy feature in voters’ minds? FP’s Ravi Agrawal will interview Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on U.S. relations with Taiwan, tensions in the Taiwan Strait, semiconductors, and more. The conversation will be released on Sept. 14. Submit your questions.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson on American Democracy

Sept. 26 | 11 a.m. EDT

Heather Cox Richardson has long grappled with questions of how democracy has weakened in the United States and how its citizenry can try to take back control. That topic is the focus of her new book, Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America, and she’ll take questions from subscribers in a conversation with FP’s Ravi Agrawal. Register here

Exercise Your Mind

On Friday, a foreign intelligence employee from which European nation was charged with treason for allegedly passing secret information to Russia?

A. Hungary

B. Romania

C. Germany

D. Italy

You can find the answer to this question and learn more at the end of this post.

Do Policy Schools Still Have a Point?

As a new academic term begins, FP columnist and Harvard University international relations professor Stephen M. Walt considers whether modern public programs are able to keep up with “a world that is being transformed in ways that make today’s knowledge less useful or relevant":

Here’s what I mean. What if we are headed toward a world where AI and other technological developments create far-reaching market disruptions more or less constantly, but on a scale we haven’t seen before? Just look at what some new diet drugs (e.g., Ozempic) are doing to the whole diet industry. What if a changing climate makes jet travel prohibitively expensive, environmentally unsustainable, or just too dangerous due to increasing atmospheric turbulence? What if large areas of the planet—currently home to tens of millions of people—become uninhabitable? Are we ready for the day when the satellites on which global communications depend are taken out by a cascading collision of space junk, a malevolent hacker, or the deliberate action of a hostile power? Do you even remember how you used to do things in the pre-digital age? And what if the political effects of all these developments disrupt familiar modes of governance, long-standing alliance commitments, patterns of economic dependence, and the institutional features that have largely determined global politics for the past 75 years or more?

My point is that in a world of increasingly rapid and interconnected disruption, some of the familiar verities, principles, and practices that we’ve taken for granted (and confidently taught to our students) may not be all that helpful. In these circumstances, what will matter is a leader’s ability to adapt, to jettison old ideas, to discriminate between sound science and snake oil, and to invent new ways of meeting public needs. Teaching students how things worked in the past, and instilling timeless truths derived from earlier epochs may not be that helpful—it might even be counterproductive.

Am I proposing that we toss out the current curriculum, stop teaching microeconomics, democratic theory, public accounting, econometrics, foreign policy, applied ethics, history, or any of the other building blocks of today’s public policy curriculum? Not yet. But we ought to devote more time and effort to preparing them for a world that is going to be radically different from the one we’ve known in the past—and sooner than they think.

Read Walt’s latest column, which includes some proposals on how these programs might improve what they are offering they’re students. And start your young IR professional’s career smarter—nurture their scholastic life and help them access fresh perspectives on fast-changing global affairs by giving the gift of a Foreign Policy subscription.

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• More Speakers Joining FP at UNGA: As you finalize your plans in New York next week, don’t miss these policymakers and experts in conversation with Foreign Policy’s leaders. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, will discuss accelerating climate adaptation for health equity on Sept. 20. Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, and Dr. Natalia Kanem, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, will take the stage at FP’s Health Forum on Sept. 20. And Stéphane Duguin, the CEO at the CyberPeace Institute, and Karim A.A. Khan KC, a prosecutor of the International Community Court, join our conversation on the future of hybrid warfare on Sept. 21. Register for all events and see full agendas for all our conversations.
• Russia's Long-War Economy: Is Russia’s war economy on the brink of crisis? Or is it settling into a new “long-war” mode? FP columnist Adam Tooze writes about the fall of the ruble and the status of the Russian economy in the latest edition of his Chartbook newsletter. Also, listen to his “Ruble Roulette” conversation with FP deputy editor Cameron Abadi on the latest episode of FP’s Ones & Tooze podcast.
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Answer: C. Germany. Although the reason behind the employee’s actions is not yet clear, Adrian Karatnycky’s examination of treason in Ukraine provides insight into turncoat mentality.