26 January 2010

Berlin Session starts off GPPi’s GG2020 Program

The Global Public Policy Institute and the project partners of "Global Governance 2020: Designing the Future of International Institutions" held the first of three GG2020 session in Berlin from 17-21 January 2010.

The GG2020 program brought together young leaders, eight respectively from China, Germany and the United States for a first meeting in Berlin. Over the course of the next 12 months there will be two further meetings of the fellows in Shanghai and Washington D.C., respectively. The program aims to connect those who have the ambition and imagination to shape the future of international institutions.

Combining academic excellence and professional experience with personal commitment, intellectual creativity and a clear dedication to global problem-solving, the fellows discussed global governance pertaining to the three key issue areas of climate change, nuclear non-proliferation and global finance in distinct working groups.

With the completion of the Berlin session, the groundwork is laid for the fellows to contemplate the future design of international institutions during the further course of the program. Corresponding to the goals of the first session, the fellows identified and analyzed the factors that determine the nature of global governance in the three policy fields and might influence them in the future. A set of crucial factors was selected and different trajectories for these factors have been explored, thereby identifying a number of possible future scenarios regarding the future shape of global governance.

During the further course of the program, the GG2020 fellows will jointly develop a shared vision for the system of global governance in the year 2020, reflecting the common ground as well as highlighting the divergences across the three world regions. Moreover, it is the fellows’ task to provide a road map as to how to design a system of global governance that is fit to bring about the fellows’ vision of the future while adhering to the shared normative principles and managing the remaining normative divergences.

During the Berlin session, the fellows had the opportunity to draw on the insights and expertise of guests and speakers such as Monica Araya, E3G London; Chen Yugang, Fudan University; Henrik Enderlein, Hertie School of Governance; Richard Gowan, New York University; Inge Kaul, Hertie School of Governance; Andrew Moravcsik, Princeton University; and Michael Zürn Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, among others.

The program also included visits and exchanges of ideas with various policy makers, among them Peter Ammon, State Secretary, Federal Foreign Office; Jörg Asmussen, State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance; Andreas Michaelis, Director-General for Middle Eastern Affairs and North Africa, Federal Foreign Office; Hans Joachim Schellnhuber CBE, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; and Karsten Voigt, former Coordinator of German-North American Cooperation, Federal Foreign Office.

The program, which will run from January 2010 to January 2011, is conducted in collaboration with the Hertie School of Governance, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, The Brookings Institution, Fudan University, and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. The program is generously supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Transatlantic Program of the German Government (ERP Grant administered by the German Ministry for Economics and Technology).

To view the twenty-four fellows of the GG2020 program, please visit the "Global Governance 2020: Designing the Future of International Institutions" web site.

For more information please contact Björn Conrad or Joel Sandhu.

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