How Are Key 21st-Century Powers Arranging Themselves: For Competition, Coexistence, or Cooperation?

The Stanley Center, the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) held their third in a series of conferences on the prospects for key influential nations to cooperate—particularly in the G groupings and summit diplomacy. A group of experts—mainly from the United States, China, and Canada—gathered June 6-8, 2011, at Airlie Center in Warrenton, Virginia, to pinpoint the multilateral frameworks best able to achieve progress in different areas of policy.

Participants examined issues that are current foci for the G-20 and others that may or may not be added to that forum’s remit. The conference agenda divided up the issue areas according to how well they fit with the traditional portfolio of the G-20. Each session was a kind of concentric circle, beginning with the G-20’s core responsibility for the global economy and moving outward to the limits of what this forum could realistically tackle. This served well in spurring a discussion about which topics the G-20 should address.