Nowadays, we no longer discuss whether or not we are members of the global society. Rather, we discuss how to better participate in it. in his book “2020: A new paradigm”, Robert Shapiro says; “there is no way to escape this future. No country now has the freedom to decide that it does not accept what demography, globalization or the new geopolitical map holds. ”
That is, precisely, the definition of the international isolation that we lived in Argentina between 2005-2015. Argentina was isolated, it wasn´t part of the global society. It does not mean that today the country has a leading role in the elaboration of multilateral norms or standards. But it can gradually and steadily build a role as a ” responsible neighbour ” and actively help to promote and host mechanisms were these topics are discussed. It is not for the whole countries to lead every global debate, but most of them can contribute ideas and proposals.
Assuming we agree that global challenges are today more complex and pressing than ever, one could ask;
why there is no more and better multilateral cooperation? Wouldn´t that be the way to deal with those challenges in a more effective manner? Why the new and powerful communication technologies are not yet ready to mobilize consensus, integrations and social equity?
It looks like the world of finance and that of the new technologies change much faster than politics including international politics. Global society, however, seems to move in the right direction. The efforts to improve global governance can report many decades of concrete achievements.
Proposals are being made every day to reform international institutions and their procedures, new institutions emerge (such as the Asian Investment on Infrastructure Bank, AIIB) and new mechanisms (such as the G20, chaired by Argentina in 2018) are strengthened to improve the quality and scope of global governance systems.
We are moving forward. There is a long way to go, but we can be cautiously optimistic.
