Global Challenges Can Be Addressed Despite Great Power Rivalry

Context: The Global Commission, a group of eminent global citizens drawn from across the world, including Montek Singh Ahluwalia from India, releases its recent report which overlaps with but is quite distinct from ‘The Limits of Growth’ study.

Challenges before the world 

• Covid Pandemic and its consequences: Most urgent challenge. Distribution of vaccines in most developing countries limited as global response to make them available adequately and affordably in these countries has been woefully insufficient leading to -
• Rise of new variants sustaining the situation.
• Supply bottlenecks, rising inequality, demand constraints and massive public debt in developing countries are hobbling economic recovery.
• Deep uncertainties arising from the pandemic are preempting business decisions as well as government policies that would enable the massive private investments and public spending on infrastructure, health and education that are necessary to extricate the global economy from its current crisis.
• Climate crisis: Most developing countries lack the resources to finance the massive investments required to make the transition from fossil fuels to renewables within the time available to prevent catastrophic global warming. 
• Misconceived national interests in advanced countries have clouded perceptions about the negative global externalities of not financing such a transition in developing countries.
• Absence of powerful global institution: Not even organizations of the United Nations has the clout required to override the priorities of individual countries, especially major powers.
• US - China cold war: US with bipartisan support for a more aggressive China policy and an increasingly assertive China can lead disastrous consequences to the whole world.

Way Forward

• Positive-sum over Zero-sum strategy: Not easy as it lurks many risks of misinterpreted actions but a robust framework of communications can pre-empt misunderstandings and accidental conflict.
• Both US and China should establish lines of communication to pre-empt accidental conflict through mis-understanding or miscommunication.
• The developing countries shall seek to nudge both China and the US towards positive-sum outcomes that address the key global challenges of our times.