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Indonesia’s G20 presidency and global macro collectivity
Amid the ongoing economic recovery, solidarity should underlie the benign international perspective (outward) back to equilibrium.
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Online summit: Displayed on a projected screen at the International Media Centre in Saudi Arabia's capital Riyadh on Nov. 21, 2020, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz (center) gives an address opening the G20 summit, held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while surrounding him are other G20-participating leaders. (AFP/Fayez Nureldine)
Indonesia will hold the 2022 presidency of the Group of 20 (G20). The official handover will take place at the G20 Summit in Rome on 0ct. 30-31.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has chosen the bold theme “recover stronger, recover together”. The theme sets out the vision that no one is left behind and that the recovery from the pandemic-induced economic crisis is not a contest.
The G20 is a multilateral forum that consists of 19 countries and the European Union. It represents 80 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), 75 percent of global trade and about two-thirds of the world’s population. Membership is exclusive, but it includes the perspective from advanced as well as emerging countries. Hence, the G20 presidency is a strategic opportunity that puts a spotlight on the nation.
To hold the torch of the G20 presidency amid the ongoing pandemic brings both opportunities and challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has induced hardships in almost all countries. The invisible enemy attacks all low-, middle- and high-income countries.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, most countries seemed to implement inward-looking policies, and arguably are still doing so. The rationale is to grant adequate protection for their domestic economies. But the truth is that the world is in this together. Domestic economic recovery will not be optimal if many countries are still unable to recover.
All countries around the globe need support from each other. That necessity makes economic diplomacy a strategic policy instrument in the effort to recover. Amid the ongoing economic recovery, solidarity should underlie the benign international perspective (outward) back to equilibrium.
Most international cooperation efforts, however, fall prey to the basic macro problem, i.e., the recursive collective action problem. Robert Hockett of Cornell Law School depicts the recursive collective action problem as a natural force of individual rationality, which recursively yields to a suboptimal outcome at the macro level. To take his notion seriously, one should think of advancing the scope toward the ultimate magnitude of civilization, i.e., the global sphere.
