In foreign policy speeches in Washington on April 29 and Montreal on May 10, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin proposed the creation of a new group of 20 countries (G20) at the heads-of-government level as the forum of choice for tackling pressing global problems.
Although initial press reports in Canada interpreted this as a veiled retrenchment from Canada's historically strong support for the United Nations, it is better viewed as an enlargement of the G8 grouping by co-opting such major economic players as Australia, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, South Korea, Mexico and Brazil.
The central challenge of global governance is a double disconnect: