ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that it is the visionary conception that is likely to prevail, particularly if the G20’s founding custodians successfully steer it in a direction that gives it the authority of the leaders themselves and the full breadth, novelty, and ambition of the agenda they demand. It discusses the origins of the G20 in the emergence of the New Arrangements to Borrow, the G22, the Financial Stability Forum, the Cologne Summit ‘GX’, and the G20 itself. The G20 was in the first instance a US-led initiative, in accordance with classic realist models of benign hegemony in international regime formation and American leadership in G7 co-operation. The chapter looks ahead at prospective approaches and architecture for the October 2000 and post-October G20, and draws conclusions as to the group’s future importance and role. G20 leaders could address the question of what the architecture should be for coherent global governance in the twenty-first century.
