Global Governance: An Assessment

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission
Moderated by Pravin Krishna, Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business

April 20, 2016

As economics and politics grow ever more interconnected between nations, the need for multinational governance is also increasing, according to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of India's Planning Commission, veteran economist of the World Bank, and independent evaluator of the International Monetary Fund.

Ahluwalia explained how the emergence of new economic powers have put pressure on existing power structures to make room for them at the table. Referring to the "Thucydides Trap", Ahluwalia asked "Will the system adjust to new claimants to power in a sensible way, or not?"

Ahluwalia concluded that the established economic powers are taking steps to provide more opportunities for emerging powers to join the world's multinational governance systems, but the adjustment process is not moving fast enough. It has succeeded in bringing together the elites of each country to talk to each other and give assurances that they will keep one another's interests in mind, but it has not yet led to a functional agreement to coordinate their nations' macroeconomic policies. Ahluwalia shared global governance reform recommendations, including regulatory policies to achieve a more stable financial system, sovereign debt restructuring, and expanding the role of development banks in infrastructure projects of developing countries.

Video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-wrdKo3z2o.