At the height of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008–09, the Group of Twenty was elevated to country leaders’ level and acknowledged itself as the “premier forum for … international economic cooperation.”
This self-acknowledgment reflected the long-felt need to institutionalize the dialogue between the advanced and emerging economies in a more effective setting. However, the ad hoc nature of the G-20 and the extent to which an informal and self-selected club of nations can provide a stable framework for facilitating global cooperation has been questioned.
Against this backdrop, the study traces the G-20’s historical evolution, situates the dynamics of its institutional arrangements, and reviews the emerging literature on G-20 reform. Building on this analysis, the study then assesses the expansion of the G-20’s scope to global development and appraises the Group’s evolution in the broader context of the current global governance framework.