Does the World Need the G20?

News:

The New York Times reported, “Sept. 6, 2023: The annual Group of 20 summit brings together world leaders in pursuit of a lofty goal: coordinating policy for the global economy. The agenda in New Delhi includes climate change, economic development and debt burdens in low-income countries, as well as inflation spurred by Russia’s war in Ukraine. If members can reach consensus on any or all of these subjects, they will produce an official joint declaration at the end.”

Comment:

The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum comprising of 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation and sustainable development. The G20 is composed of most of the world’s largest economies’ finance ministries, including both industrialized and developing countries. It accounts for around 80% of gross world product (GWP) and 75% of international trade.

In the context of powerful capitalist countries, the G20 is viewed as yet another tool used to further their interests and control over the resources of the Third World. Under the guise of the global community and international law, the West enforces rules that primarily benefit its own interests, while often wreaking havoc in the Third World. This havoc is caused by policies like free trade and the policy tools of the post-Washington Consensus prescriptions. When a law or rule doesn’t align with the interests of a powerful colonialist nation, it circumvents it, as demonstrated by the US’s long-time refusal to adhere to the unanimous agreement on climate change, the Kyoto accord, due to concerns about its impact on her petroleum industry.

The G20 Forum has failed to provide both financial stability and environmental protection on a global scale, leading even Western thinkers to openly discuss its shortcomings. As Dani Rodrick and Stephen M. Walt wrote last year in Foreign Affairs, “It is increasingly clear that the existing, Western-oriented approach is no longer adequate to address the many forces governing international power relations.” They predicted a future with less agreement and consensus, in which “Western policy preferences will prevail less” and “each country will have to be granted greater leeway in managing its economy, society and political system.”

The world has suffered because of colonialist states that have a lot of influence globally. It has also faced difficulties because of groups or communities or organizations formed by these major powers.

Additionally, neo-colonialism is closely linked to the idea of making money and plundering the resources of the Third World. It has caused many problems. The world will keep suffering as long as people believe in the idea of a global community. Powerful colonialist nations control everything, and neo-colonialism continues. So, we can’t make the world a better and happier place unless we deal with these three problems: which are: the fiction of international community, the control and domination by the colonialist major powers and the presence of neo-colonialism.

The hunger for power and wealth in the colonialist nations won’t stop. It is necessary to change the idea held by many regarding the concept of alliances between great powers and strong states. The conduct of international relations structured through alliances of great powers or strong nations has wreaked havoc in the world causing widespread misery and despair. The strong have colluded and cooperated together to dominate the weak. The powerful states form structures and institutions through which they divide power, influence and resources amongst themselves.

The Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood will mobilize international public opinion against the concept of alliances between major powers. The Khilafah state will initiate a powerful political and intellectual attack on the way power relations are structured in the World today arguing for each state to conduct its own foreign policy according to its interests outside formal structures, alliances and international institutions. The rise of the Khilafah State on the world stage will thus radically change the nature and conduct of international relations. It will break the hold of the colonialist major powers over the world.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Engineer Zeeshan – Wilayah Pakistan