G-20: An Elegant Gathering in a World in Chaos

Article at El Diario de Hoy, published on 24 November 2022. https://www.elsalvador.com/noticias/nacional/g20-mundo-caos-guerra-ucrania/1018914/2022/

While the most powerful people on the planet gathered in Bali, millions worldwide suffered the effects of war, misery, and dictatorships.

On November 15 and 16, in the paradisiacal island of Bali, Indonesia, the leaders of the world's major powers met for the G-20 summit.

There, figures such as Joe Biden and Xi Jinping held bilateral meetings in an atmosphere of stiff cordiality. Additionally, other nations took the opportunity to reaffirm their commitments to one another. Later, heads of government enjoyed appetizers and watched traditional Balinese performances.

The main outcome appears to be a commitment to global cooperation. It also signaled a momentary calm after Biden and Xi held a meeting that seemed to ease some of the tensions threatening global stability. From the media’s perspective, 17,200 kilometers away from the Indonesian island, there was a slight sense of relief.

But that relief fades when recalling the backdrop of this gathering.

At the same time that the world’s most powerful men and women were shaking hands and posing for the international press, Russia launched its most intense bombing campaign on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in over a month.

While a select few enjoyed the tropical warmth of the island, thousands in Ukraine saw their homes reduced to rubble or prepared for power outages due to Russian attacks on energy plants. The world is undergoing a chaotic moment while, in grand halls, toasts are made for peace.

Ukraine and Many Other Corners of the World

The war in Ukraine has now surpassed its ninth month. Russian troops, who initially expected a much shorter campaign and a swift victory over their neighbor, have had to retreat from key cities. However, they continue to strike Ukrainian territory, plunging the country further into chaos, destruction, and death.

This war has affected the entire world. The supply of food, fertilizers, oil, and other essential goods has drastically declined, causing uncontrolled inflation in many parts of the world. In Ukraine, the war brings ruin. In much of the world, it brings hunger and poverty.

But Ukraine is not the only place where chaos and despair are unfolding. A quick glance at the globe reveals major conflicts everywhere. For example, tensions are rising between an increasingly aggressive China and a Taiwan that is likely scrambling for international support to prevent catastrophe.

In Brazil, the world’s fourth-largest democracy, President Jair Bolsonaro joined a legal petition to overturn the election results that he lost to leftist Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva. Following Donald Trump’s example, the president refuses to acknowledge the outcome of a clean and legitimate election. In such a polarized country, this could lead nearly 49% of the population to distrust electoral processes and reject democracy itself.

Meanwhile, in Iran, people face death sentences for protesting against police brutality and misogyny. In Central America’s Northern Triangle, citizens flee en masse from poverty, violence, abuse of power, and environmental vulnerability.

The grand G-20 event was held against a bleak backdrop: a world engulfed in instability, conflict, and the prospect of an impending economic crisis.

Democracies in Crisis

It’s not just war that has the world on its knees. In too many places, there is a dangerous shift toward authoritarianism.

Loudmouthed pseudo-leaders exploit widespread frustrations to consolidate and abuse power for their own benefit—at the expense of their critics.

The traditional tools of democracy, such as elections and constitutional reforms, are being hijacked and manipulated to destroy democracy itself, ensuring continuity in power and impunity.

Critical voices are being silenced. In some places, through persecution, harassment, forced exile, and politicized justice. In others, with bullets.

Even countries that seemed to have strong institutions, such as the United States, have faced serious attempts to undermine fundamental democratic pillars like elections.

And the dream of societies never again experiencing the dark days of dictatorships is fading. Even in places like Hungary, which has previously endured oppression firsthand, there is a renewed flirtation with absolutism and intolerance.

The Dream That Never Came True

In the summer of 1989, academic Francis Fukuyama published his famous and controversial essay, The End of History?, in the specialized journal The National Interest, in which he proposed a bold hypothesis: that the imminent collapse of the Soviet Union would bring the undisputed end of ideological battles.

His text was part of a wave of predictions made just before the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War—a conflict that pitted the Soviet bloc against the United States and its Western allies, sometimes indirectly but dangerously close to a direct confrontation.

His essay aligned with the optimism of the time, as many saw a surge of democratization and the promise that tensions between nations would be replaced by a commitment to globalization, trade, and cooperation. The triumph of democracy would mean the triumph of peace—at least, that was the zeitgeist of the 1990s. But the world would prove far more complicated.

Those emerging democracies faced problems of frustration, corruption, and bad governance. Amid hunger and despair, new strongmen arose—some populist and seemingly benign, others brutal and ruthless.

The apparent calm gave way to a new wave of conflicts. This time, not exclusively between state actors. The rise of terrorism and the consolidation of powerful drug cartels have brought entire states to their knees. And the rivals are no longer just in government palaces but in non-traditional organizations, sometimes hiding in remote caves.

Racial and religious tensions continue to divide entire nations. In the past three decades, the world has witnessed numerous genocides.

The promise of trade and prosperity reached some. But many others continue to watch, from the windows of misery, a life they cannot even dream of attaining.

Instead of ushering in an idyllic world or the end of history, for many places, the past three decades have marked the beginning of yet another cycle of humanity’s worst tendencies: authoritarianism, war, hunger, and destruction.

The G-20

As the world’s most powerful figures shook hands and posed with half-smiles, millions around the world continued to wait for solutions to the problems they have endured for decades.

The world is in chaos, democracies are crumbling, and multiple cities are in flames. But none of this is fully addressed in the global chessboard, where clashes of interest often take precedence over the pursuit of peace.

Far from the end of history, a new cycle of authoritarianism, suffering, and seemingly endless mourning has begun—for those in Kyiv, Managua, Caracas, Pyongyang, Tehran, Brasilia, and beyond.