Bare New World

Prelims: Current events of international importance,G7, Doha Agreement, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), Global South etc.

Mains GS Paper II: Bilateral, regional and global grouping and agreements involving India or affecting India’s interests etc

ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS

• Events that are shaping the 21st century:
  • The conflict in Ukraine
  • The G7 summit in Hiroshima.

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE

Context

Group of Seven (G7):

• It is an intergovernmental organization that was formed in 1975.
• The bloc meets annually to discuss issues of common interest like global economic governance, international security and energy policy.
• The G7 countries are the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US.
• All the G7 countries and India are a part of G20.
• The G7 does not have a formal constitution or a fixed headquarters.
• The decisions taken by leaders during annual summits are non-binding.

Major purpose of the G-7:

• It is to discuss and deliberate on international economic issues.
• It sometimes acts in concert to help resolve other global problems, with a special focus on economic issues.

Lesson from global reactions to the war:

• Geography still matters: East-West and North-South binaries may be captivating, but proximity and the neighborhood are considerably more important.
• The world may be Hyper-globalized, but we are also more local than ever before.
• Social media, trends in technology and politics, and a host of other factors have bracketed us into narrow spheres of interest.
• UN vote condemning the Ukraine war: Of the 140 countries that voted and condemned Russia, only a fraction sanctioned Russia.
• The list of countries that were the earliest to receive vaccines in the pandemic could prove to be productive.
  • It explains which countries have sanctioned Russia.
  • It will offer valuable lessons about globalization, its hierarchy and therefore, its discontents.
• Those sanctioning Russia are victors of World War II and also of globalization and development.
  • Others are within their rights to challenge the status quo.
• India is not on the fence: It chooses its priorities just as every other country has done.
• The recent spate of visits by European leaders to China shows that value-based frameworks are untenable.
• Nations are driven by self-interest and in this case, the need to maintain lucrative economic relations.
  • India is no different: It confronts the Chinese on the Himalayan heights, trade continues where the economy needs it.
• Distance matters; interest matters even more.

Recent events and lessons from them:

• The pandemic
• The fallout of the Doha Agreement and the abandoning of Afghanistan
• The Chinese aggression on India’s borders
• New sanction regimes and their impact on the loosely termed “Global South”.

Lessons:

• The Covid-19 outbreak saw the overt hijack of medical equipment and access to vaccines, and growing gaps in treatment capabilities.
  • In pandemic: there was no superpower, there was no great power, and there was no big power. There were only selfish powers.
• The Afghan people were betrayed and abandoned because it was expedient for higher powers to flee the country at a particular moment.
• Chinese territorial incursions have provoked a range of self-serving responses from different actors otherwise keen to defend democracy.

Way Forward

• If meaningful international dialogue is to be conducted, nations must right-size some of their perceptions about each other and themselves.
• The tendency to frame the Global South as a possible bridge actor between competing positions has its merits.
  • But the “Global South” is itself a deeply reductive term, which elides the group’s innate heterogeneity.
  • Very few countries would like to be categorized as “southern” as they continue to rise and shape global systems.
  • Five years from now, Brazil and India might bristle at such a label themselves.
• The countries of the South organizing themselves over the next decade will have a far more profound impact than the West on the global balance of power, and on the contours of the new world order.
  • As the century progresses, an East and West will emerge within the Global North and South.
• International engagements of the future will organize themselves around the standard operating principle of law firms — as limited liability partnerships (LLPs).
  • LLPs will come to constitute the geometry of politics, and countries will work together on specific issues, for specific purposes, and for specific outcomes.

QUESTION FOR PRACTICE

How will I2U2 (India, Israel, UAE and USA) grouping transform India’s Position in global politics?(UPSC 2022) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)