The GG2020 Approach

"How should the system of global governance be designed in the year 2020 and beyond in order to effectively tackle the most pressing global challenges of the future?"

This question was at the very heart of the GG2020 program. In order to provide answers, the twenty-four GG2020 fellows pursued new and innovative ways to jointly think into a future that they themselves (alongside many others) will help to shape. The GG2020 approach supported the fellows in this ambitious task by providing an intellectually challenging framework that enabled creative and rigorous thinking. The GG2020 approach drew on the instruments provided by the field of future research, including trend analysis and scenario planning approaches.

The fellows combined their insights on possible and probable future developments with their normative convictions about the shape and role of global governance. The aim was to create a shared vision of a future system of global governance that is both effective and normatively desirable. The resulting GG2020 vision reflects the common ground across the three world regions while at the same time highlighting the divergences that global governance will have to master in order to be successful in tackling global problems. This common design for the future demonstrates the real possibility of building “new bridges across the globe”. But the GG2020 fellows did not stop at merely imagining a future that is both possible and desirable. Using their shared understanding of the future as a blueprint, they turned to the even more ambitious task of designing a system of global governance that will be able to bring this future about. This system has to be both visionary and grounded in political realities. The GG2020 fellows therefore also took into consideration the leadership skills that are necessary to turn their visionary system into reality by winning support and forging alliances on the national as well as international level.

The fellows approached the overarching question of GG2020 by looking at three clearly defined policy areas: global climate governance, global nuclear governance and global economic governance. The working process was structured in three steps that correspond to the three GG2020 sessions:

First, the fellows developed a deeper understanding of the challenges in the three policy areas by identifying the factors that influence these issues in the global governance arena and those which may influence it in the future. A set of crucial factors were selected and different trajectories for these factors were also explored and analyzed.

Second, the fellows systemized the identified factors, analyzing their interdependencies and thereby identifying a number of possible future scenarios regarding the shape of global governance. Based on the emerging tapestry of the possible and plausible, the fellows engaged in an in-depth discussion about the normatively desirable shape of global governance and the fundamental principles that should guide global problem-solving.  

Third, the fellows brought together the possible and the desirable by designing a system of global governance that is fit to bring about the fellows’ vision of the future in the respective fields, while adhering to the shared normative principles and managing the remaining normative divergences.