Setting the Scene—and the Expectations—for the G20 Summit in Japan

In my weekly column for World Politics Review, I set the scene for the upcoming G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, and examine its formal agenda as well as some of the meetings that will take place on the event's sidelines.

This weekend, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomes world leaders to Osaka for the annual summit of the Group of Twenty (G20). This club of major economies has been at the forefront of global governance since November 2008, when U.S. President George W. Bush convened an emergency committee to help rescue a world plummeting into the financial and economic abyss. The G20’s ambit has since broadened to encompass an ever-expanding range of global issues. 

The Osaka summit continues that trend. Japan set an ambitious agenda for its presidency of the G-20, which rotates every year. Major themes include removing structural impediments to growth, reforming the global trading system, adapting the world economy to the data revolution, combating climate change and plastics pollution, adjusting employment policy to reflect aging societies, empowering women in the workforce, advancing sustainable development and achieving universal health coverage. This sprawling program reflects the G-20’s perceived centrality as a global steering group, as well as the constant temptation of successive host nations to add signature initiatives to the G-20’s preexisting priorities. 

Read the full World Politics Review article here.