The new multilateralism will rely on national leadership and cooperation. But the G7 is not sufficient. We need a better group for a different time. We need a core group of finance ministers who will assume responsibility for anticipating issues, sharing information and insights, exploring mutual interests, mobilizing efforts to solve problems, and at least managing differences.
We should consider a new Steering Group including Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the current G7, that meets regularly, with active formal and informal dialogues.
The new Steering Group should not just replace the G7 with a fixed-number G14. We must not use old world methods to remake the new. The Steering Group should evolve to fit changing circumstances. We need this new network so that global problems are not just mopped up after the fact, but anticipated. The Steering Group will still need to work through established international institutions, but the core group will increase the likelihood that countries draw together to address problems larger than any one state.
Just as the financial crisis has been international because of interconnectedness, the reforms will need to be multilateral. Whether through an expanded Financial Stability Forum with the International Monetary Fund or the Steering Group, these financial supervisory issues will need to be addressed in a broader multilateral context.
The New Multilateral Network must also interconnect energy and climate change. World energy markets are a mess. We need a "global bargain" among major producers and consumers of energy. There could be a common interest in managing a price range that reconciles interests while transitioning toward lower carbon growth strategies, a broader portfolio of supplies, and greater international security.
A climate change accord also will have to be supported by new tools. We need new mechanisms to support forestation and avoid deforestation, develop new technologies and encourage their rapid diffusion, provide financial support to poorer countries, assist with adaptation, and strengthen carbon markets. The Steering Group should help push action on energy, the environment, and financing to assist the UN negotiations and the practical implementation of a climate change treaty.
Dealing with the economic aftermath will be one of the foremost responsibilities of the next US President. But this work is not about America alone.
Multilateralism, at its best, is a means for solving problems among countries, with the group at the table willing and able to take constructive action together. Fate presents an opportunity wrapped in a necessity: to modernize multilateralism and markets.
The author, Robert B. Zoellick, is president of the World Bank Group
(China Daily October 21, 2008)
