Post 2015: Global Action for an Inclusive and Sustainable Future

CHApTER FOuR
A just and stable
international
order, under
which GPGs can
be provided and
development
can flourish,
will not happen
by accident.
Europeans,
North Americans,
Chinese, Indians,
Africans, Latin
Americans and
everyone else will
have to work hard
to create and
maintain it.
62
the last 20 years has seen a rising number of
regional bodies such as the asia-pacific Economic
cooperation (apEc), the association of Southeast
asian nations (aSEan), the mercado común
del Sur (mercosur) and the african union (au).
In addition, the G8 has lost relevance to the G20,
and the legitimacy of the un Security council, as
the highest arbiter of international conflicts, has
declined. there have been calls to improve the
legitimacy and effectiveness of existing institutional
structures. countries like brazil, India and South
africa have called for reform of the Security
council and argued for permanent membership (if
not for the power of veto). at the bretton Woods
Institutions, the recent appointments of new
heads of the International monetary Fund and the
World bank provoked more debate and discussion
than ever before. broadly formalised institutional
settings have been established for debating certain
public goods issues, and new coalitions, such as
the brIcS and the g7+ group of fragile states, have
emerged. Given that global consensus-building will
become more difficult as more participants can
push for what they want, coalitions are likely to
try to resolve problems on which global consensus
cannot be reached. It is not yet clear what their
mandates will be, how robust they will prove with
regard to internal tensions, or how they will be
governed.
at the level of global governance there remain
many open questions about what kinds of institution
will take shape. Will the rising prominence of the
G20 lead to a similar pattern of change at the World
bank and the ImF? or will uSa and European
resistance to change encourage the emerging
powers to create new financial institutions, such as
a brIcS bank, which they would seek to dominate?
Will negotiations on global environmental regimes
such as climate change, biodiversity and fisheries
management result in mutually beneficial outcomes,
or will they stall? Will the initial enthusiasm for the
44 Some of these questions are also posed by birdsall (2012).
EuropEan rEport on DEvElopmEnt 2013
Doha Development round mark the high point of
negotiations on a global trading regime, or will new
impetus be found to achieve a universally beneficial
system? Does the fact that there are clear common
interests in resolving global issues, combined with
the notion that all of these issues appear urgent,
presage a move towards a period of just and
sustainable cooperation? or is the world heading
for unavoidable, albeit predictable, disaster? 44
as robert Kagan (2012) has pointed out, there are
no guarantees. Historically, periods of multipolarity,
such as the second half of the 19th century, have
been marked by tension and conflict as well as
catastrophic miscalculation. the mixed record
of efforts to coordinate responses to the global
financial crisis does not inspire confidence that the
G20 will facilitate multipolar economic cooperation
(Frieden et al., 2012). Some have taken the difficult
rio+20 negotiations in 2012 as a warning sign
that ‘lowest common denominator’ outcomes
may be the best that can be expected for any post-
2015 development framework. there are still no
workable international institutions governing a
range of global commons issues. a just and stable
international order, under which GpGs can be
provided and development can flourish, will not
happen by accident. Europeans, north americans,
chinese, Indians, africans, latin americans and
everyone else will have to work hard to create and
maintain it.
4.4 Implications for
international development
cooperation and the EU
throughout the post-colonial era the field
of development policy has been understood
as encompassing a combination of aid from
‘rich’ to ‘poor’ countries, Western-led efforts to
shape ‘development-friendly’ global economic