The work of the G20 benefits from the agenda-setting of the country holding the presidency as well as from the continuity that can be kept in the agendas, year after year. From this perspective, Germany, presiding over the G20 during 2017, will be able to fruitfully take up important items that have been developed under the Chinese presidency.
It is an interesting and intense November in international relations. The APEC Summit in Beijing has gathered the leaders of a number of countries, which represent 54% of the world Gdp; 9 of them are G-20 members. The G-20 Summit itself, taking place in Australia (15-16 November), seems to once more highlight the centrality of the Pacific region in the world economy and politics. At the region’s core, China is slowly but steadily taking the lead and asserting its own centrality.
Argentina has defaulted again, thirteen years after its last and catastrophic financial collapse (2001). At the time, its economy shrank by 11% in one year (2002) and inflation rose above 40%; now, however, things look quite different and the Argentine government, much more optimistic. What has happened? At least three factors can be singled out.
The outcome of the forthcoming general elections is wide open, and Iraq’s political scene could change considerably in a short time. But, whatever its shape and color, the government that takes power will have to address serious medium-term economic challenges. In one way or another, these challenges all relate to oil – and it is difficult to see how it could be otherwise, as Iraq is already one of the largest oil producers in the world and the third largest exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Recent events in Ukraine have been depicted in many ways depending on who is narrating the story of the Euromaidan and what is his perception of the symbolic meaning of the actions under scrutiny: as a revolution against a corrupt political system, as a civil war, as a genuine proof of the Euro-dream for change of Ukrainian people who are ready to die defending their ideals, as a coup d’état and so on.
