Friday, July 10, 2009

My Way News - G-8 is not enough: Calls for larger, recast group
AP reports: "For all the smiles and upbeat talk, the just-ended Group of Eight summit showed how unwieldy the forum has become, run by Cold War-vintage powers while relegating the world's fastest growing economies - China, India and Brazil - to observers. [...] But finding the right formula for an overhaul will prove tricky."

Comment: This is an interesting time in world history, the major institutions that people assumed would create global government (like the UN or the G8) have failed to address the serious problems that challenge world peace. Would the UN have ever really confronted Saddam Hussien if George Bush had not acted? No, they would have let him ignore repeated Security Council resolutions because major UN powers (like Germany and France) had too much money invested in Iraq. The same is true today with Iran (where Russia has an interest in maintaining the status quo) and North Korea (where China has huge trade interests). The idea of world government is dead, but the desire to create something new is clearly there. Will that desire eventually lead to the creation of new global institutions? Or, will a maverick leader emerge who convinces a smaller group of countries (at first) that he has a new and better idea?

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