U.S. Institute of Peace experts discuss the latest foreign policy issues from around the world in On Peace, a brief weekly collaboration with SiriusXM's POTUS Channel 124.

Transcript

Laura Coates: Joining us now is Andrew Cheatham, the USIP senior advisor for global policy and disruptive technologies. He joins me now. Andrew, good morning. How are you?

Andrew Cheatham: Good morning. Laura, I'm great. How are you?

Laura Coates: I'm doing great. I want to talk to you about the G20 summit, Biden's last as President of the United States, obviously, and try to get a sense of what were the thoughts going in that might be discussed, and any deliverables or any concrete specifics that we can take away from what happened?

Andrew Cheatham: Sure, yeah. I mean, this year was hosted by Brazil and President Lula da Silva, and he had some plans. You know, it's an ongoing process throughout the year, with the president each year setting the agenda. So President Lula, as he's called, wanted to talk about social justice and fighting hunger and poverty, sustainable development and the Sustainable Development Goals. It's a big priority for Brazil. And then they always talk about climate and the green transition and things like that. And the big thing this year, I think, that was a continued conversation was the global governance reform, reform of the U.N. the World Bank and IMF, and then, of course, what can we do about these big conflicts in the world, in the Middle East and Ukraine, of course. So those were some of the topics.

Laura Coates: Were there any moments that, I mean, obviously it was not that long after the American presidential election that has now seen Donald Trump emerge as the victor. Did that resonate in the actual summit?

Andrew Cheatham: I think a lot of the commentary on the sidelines was talking about how, of course, that was front and center on many people's minds as they look at economic policy and what the new administration's policies, how they might be a part of the global economic picture. And of course, it was a discussion on some of these peace propositions in Ukraine, the Middle East. So I think it was on the sidelines. But as I said, the declaration is drafted well in advance, and then the negotiations on what they will actually agree to really, you know, is not, the fine details are not really effective. But certainly, it was a group of 20 or more global leaders, a relatively small group, that are thinking about who's going to be in the club next year for sure.

Laura Coates: Obviously, the sustainable development, the global prosperity, all the things that are going to be discussed and were discussed, obviously they're impossible, to your earlier point, without peace. And all the conflict that's happening across the globe, is there anything that they discussed that could influence that, or was it really a wait and see approach?

Andrew Cheatham: Well, I mean, I think you can look at it as a glass half full or a glass half empty. I mean, I think that it was a little bit on Ukraine specifically, it was less detailed, the declaration and what they said on, you know, calling for peace, but with less detail, for example they didn't call out Russia and blame Russia specifically for the invasion. But they did speak to the absolute need to protect territorial integrity, which sounds like a lot, but I mean, you know, Russia's invasion of Ukraine to take its territory is really, I wouldn't say it's totally unprecedented, but it's, you know, since World War II, it's a very, very, very big deal. We don't really see countries trying to take territory by conquest, and that's a big deal. They spoke to that.

And then, of course, in the Middle East, they really spoke to the humanitarian situation and the need to protect civilians and to really, you know, consider the humanitarian needs in that war. So I think that that's a big deal. Also, ongoing last week during the, I mean, like while the talks were ongoing, we saw Russia ratchet up the nuclear saber rattling and the deployment of ballistic missiles. So they had one line about the need to for nuclear arms control, and they sort of do that all the time, but they wanted to reopen the document to renegotiate amidst the ratcheting up. And they ultimately decided not to. Of course, Russia is in the room, so they decided not to do that. In the end, they have they agreed on the final declaration, which does not always happen. And there the Argentine president, Javier Milei, sort of threatened to pull out of the declaration, but in the end, they adopted the declaration.

Laura Coates: What about climate change and security? I mean, it was presented as an urgent security issue, resource scarcity, mass displacement and beyond. Did they reaffirm commitments to the Paris Agreement?

Andrew Cheatham: They spoke, they did, and they spoke to the issues of climate security. Of course, the G20 was going on at the same time as the COP29 in Azerbaijan. And there was the big push by Brazil specifically to give this fund for countries that, you know, in developing countries, Global South countries, countries dealing with climate change and in ways that that the rich world doesn't have to. So there was sort of a joint conversation at the G20 and COP29 about how to finance the funding that countries are going to need as they deal with ever increasing weather events and crises because of the climate. And so this was a big part of the conversation at the G20, at the same time in Azerbaijan at COP29.

Laura Coates: I am curious about, you know, AI. Did that come up at all? Obviously, this is a topic that many people are grappling with as we're looking at the, you know, technological advancements and beyond, digital technologies. Did AI come up?

Andrew Cheatham: Yes, it did. And there are really two sides to AI discussions and new technologies in general. There are always the calls for harnessing new technology, AI specifically, to help developing countries and the world's, you know, poor, and people as a way of launching development. So you also have to bridge this digital divide. Rich countries have access to the internet. They have these new technologies. They want to ensure that developing countries also get this access, and they also are able to harness new technologies to prosper. So that was a big part of the conversation. And then at the same time, of course, they look at the threats from what they call mis- and disinformation, and this narrative warfare that we all have around the world. And they saw that as a big problem, and wanted to work together as the Group of 20, the G20, and the global community to try to have consensus on the rules of the road for AI and other new technologies. So those were both part of the final declaration and much of the discussion.

Laura Coates: Really fascinating to think about the role of this particular summit. And is there anything that was surprising that came out of it that was unexpected, or that might guide the way in which our own American government functions?

Andrew Cheatham: You know, it wasn't a big shock, but I think that we have to look at this G20 summit, the last G20 summit which was in India, and the next G20 summit which is in South Africa, and see how there is this major trend of the Global South having a bigger and bigger voice in global issues. So the G20, which is a bigger group than the Group of Seven which is normally just the Western countries, the Group of 20, has maintained a huge share of economic power and influence, while the G7 has declined significantly. So we see that the world is becoming more and more multipolar, as they say, and the issues of the Global South, developing nations, non-western nations specifically is coming much more to the forefront. We had the BRICS summit in October, the U.N. General Assembly in September, and this G20 and then the years past of the G20 all talking about how we can have a more equal world, and how we can bring these countries that haven't really had as much of a voice to the table to talk about what we're going to do for non-western countries in a new world that we see. I think that is a big thing that we need to pay attention to.

Laura Coates: Andrew Cheatham, USIP, senior advisor for global policy, thank you so much for joining us today. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Andrew Cheatham: You too, Laura, thank you. Happy Thanksgiving.