Global governance in the Second Cold War: the G20 and the political economy of polyalignment

This article examines how states in the Global South are responding to the challenges of the ‘Second Cold War’ (SCW) via global governance. Globalisation has enmeshed almost all states and societies in ­border-spanning networks, connecting them to the United States and China. With intensifying geopolitical rivalry, however, developing countries risk being corralled into exclusive arrangements, or have the great powers weaponise important networks against them. In response, governments and other actors have sought to cultivate and maintain engagements with multiple external partners and networks – polyalignment – including through global governance. We focus on the G20. Its informal, networked structure and annual rotating presidency uniquely allow Southern member-states to set the international agenda in discrete domains, a capacity they have harnessed to shape global rules to manage the SCW’s challenges. We offer two case studies of G20 presidencies: Indonesia’s promotion of blended finance in 2022 and India’s promotion of digital public infrastructure in 2023. By deploying the State Transformation Approach, we show how these initiatives were shaped by socio-political contestation within each country, and by existing patterns of cross-border economic integration, affecting their implementation and outputs, and constraining governments’ efforts.