The G20 is dead as a crisis or steering committee: Long live the G20 as hybrid focal point

The G20 as experienced via the 2008 global financial crisis is dead. That is to say, examining the G20 as a tightly controlling concert of powers is no longer relevant. Yet, this ending does not mean that the G20 is irrelevant. The G20's increased fragmentation has cut into its substantive performance. Tensions in national policy coordination have constrained institutional effectiveness, creating a high degree of fragility in terms of delivery. This line of argument highlighting the limits and constraints of the G20, however, overlooks the success of the G20 in embedding itself as a hybrid focal point for global politics. Teasing out this dynamic, this article profiles the changes with respect to the G20's shift from both a crisis and steering committee at the apex of power to a platform that exhibits some hub characteristics but facilitates networking at both the intergovernmental and state or societal transnational levels.