Such hopes. Only yesterday the European Union pirouetted as the model for a multipolar world. The G20 struck a global pose. Here was an institution to bind the interests of advanced and rising nations alike. And now? Turmoil in Europe and stasis in the G20.
It would be nice to think that this week’s deal to rescue the euro marked a turning point. I doubt it. The era of multilateralism is giving way to a new age of nationalisms. After experimenting since 1945 with co-operative global governance, we are revisiting the 19th century world of states. Here’s the first paradox. Even as states chase the chimera of national sovereignty, they are shedding power to globalisation.
Governments have ceded power to mobile financial capital, to cross-border supply chains and to rapid shifts in comparative advantage. Control of information now belongs to 24-hour satellite television and the cacophony that is the web. The consequence is a crisis of politics. Citizens expect national politicians to protect them against the insecurities – economic, social and physical – that come with global integration. Yet governments have lost much of the capacity to meet the demands.