Weekly for politics, business and culture
Why the general post-G20 narrative is not going to lead us anywhere
Adrian Krastev
George Orwell once said: “People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome“. The wave of violence and destruction in Hamburg in the last few days produced beside the shock of the affected mainly one thing: pictures. While many acted as outraged and horrified commentators re-posting footage from the street riots, others used the events around G20 in Hamburg to create this footage by taking pictures, videos and selfies.
The G20 summit showed a world divided in its attitudes toward globalisation
Jennifer Johns
The theme of this year’s G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, was “Shaping an Interconnected World”. The gathering of 20 world leaders was set to focus on building resilient economies, improving sustainability and assuming responsibility for the prosperity of all countries. But discussions took place in a much more uncertain and potentially divisive environment than previous years.
Svetoslav Stefanov
The G20 summits have been convened for the past mere 10 years, with the first one held in 2008, shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers that triggered the ensuing global financial crisis. In the previous just over 10 years, the forum, launched in 1999, operated on the level of finance ministers and central bank governors.
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