What the G20 tells us
By Ian Richardson
The Hamburg G20 summit was highly revealing. G20 summits rarely provide the impulse for major new developments, and the latest was no exception. Instead they can provide an important marker point or snapshot of the global relation of forces. The most important signal from the latest G20 summit was that the relative decline of the US continues and Trump’s ‘America First’ policy is only accelerating it. As a result, other leading powers are being driven towards greater co-operation, unity on tackling climate change, and defence of trade against protectionism.