Rio De Janeiro: Presidency for the G20 2024 Summit
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Bright young individuals work to shape the global governance of tomorrow
By Sara Kim, Staff Writer
At international gatherings, key state actors and distinguished diplomats make promises and set goals for the future. But who holds them accountable, especially when these commitments are legally non-binding?
This is where research groups and think tanks focused on global governance, such as the G7 and G20 Research Groups, play a crucial role. Founded at the University of Toronto by Professor Emeritus Dr. John Kirton, these groups are driven by students from various universities who contribute to the accountability team.
The G7 comprises seven wealthy democracies, while the G20 includes 20 countries with diverse economic standings and regime types. Unlike formal multilateral institutions like NATO, the G7 and G20 focus on setting goals and agendas. The presidencies of the G7 and G20 summits rotate annually among member states.
What are the G7 & G20 Research Groups?
I have asked co-chairs from the G7 and G20 research groups for three keywords that they would use to describe the research groups. After looking at their responses, here are the key terms they all touched on:
Accountability. This is the cornerstone of the G7 & G20 research groups. They work hard to analyze and measure the commitments set by member states to ensure that they are held accountable to those goals.
Meticulousness. With over a hundred compliance analysts, the research groups track and record specific commitments made by all member states from previous year summits.
Jacob Rudolph, co-chair of the G7 research group, explains the important role of senior editors at the research groups in maintaining attention to detail. He says senior editors are “… looking for consistency and standardization. We’re researching countries with vastly different governmental structures… The editing process is in-depth, ensuring every action from each member is accurately tracked and described in a format consistent year after year.”
Compliance. The compliances that the research groups measure are very much result-focused. Therefore, compliance is the main focus of both research groups. Specifically, this year’s compliance from the G7 summit in Italy has taken on a unique character due to a collective commitment among member states to support Ukraine amidst its ongoing war with Russia.
Angus MacKellar, co-chair of the G7 research group, explains that “for the first time ever, full compliance needs to be collective across all members.” This commitment requires each G7 member to contribute toward a loan of approximately 50 billion USD to Ukraine by the end of this year, using Russia’s frozen central bank assets as collateral.
This loan will support Ukraine’s military needs and aid in rebuilding efforts.
What are the roles that make up the Research Groups?
The G7 & G20 Research Groups operate in a structured format to ensure compliance reports are delivered at the end of every cycle. Here are the roles that make up the team behind the research groups:
At the entry level, Compliance Analysts (CAs) are responsible for evaluating specific commitments for two G7 members each, working within “cells” of four analysts.
Lead Analysts (LAs) manage the work of Compliance Analysts. Their role involves consistent communication with CAs, focusing on standardization across evaluations. Lead analysts need to ensure consistency across their cells and alignment with broader group objectives.
Above them, Compliance Directors (CDs) are responsible for two commitment areas each, overseeing both Lead and Compliance Analysts. As noted by Angus, CDs provide expert guidelines on “what is and isn’t compliance” for each commitment. He further adds that the “… relationship between the CD and the LAs [is] the most important kind of crux of the research group,” and this highlights the team’s collaborative nature despite the organizational structure of each role.
The co-chairs manage everyone from CAs to CDs. The role of co-chairs in the G7 and G20 research groups involves constructing and projecting a broad vision for each research cycle. Jacob explains that co-chairs “… have a bit of leeway to construct the research process in the way that we think is best for the staff this year.”
What goes on during field summits?
When members of the research groups visit the G7 and G20 summits, it is often referred to as venturing on “field summits.” As Angus explains, one of their goals during summit attendance is to distribute compliance reports on the previous summit to state leaders and their teams along with attending journalists. This effort is important for the research groups’ cornerstone of accountability, as these compliance reports need to be recognized to achieve and uphold compliance among member states.
G7 & G20 Research Group’s “Compliance Reports”. Photo by Sara Kim
At field summits, some members of the research group engage with media outlets, as Angus mentions that some members have appeared on platforms like the BBC.
For instance, Jacob has participated in a commentary interview with Japanese media in Italy for this year’s G7 summit. In addition to these interactions, some members also meet with government representatives to discuss summit-related topics and ongoing developments.
Any advice for those looking to apply?
The G7 and G20 research groups typically begin hiring for compliance analyst roles around September. To help future applicants, I asked Angus and Jacob, co-chairs of the G7 research group, for their advice on joining the team.
Keep an eye on the LinkedIn pages for the G7 research group and G20 research group for future hiring updates.
Jacob highlights the importance of genuine interest. Beyond interests in politics and international relations, individuals in the sciences and economics are encouraged to apply. The key collaborative goal is to leverage these subject interests to inform policy and compliance research.
Jacob further notes that attention to detail is crucial: “We’re looking for in-depth researchers who can resize complex information into something that anybody can understand.”
Moreover, due to the structural writing style required by the research groups, successful candidates should be willing to adopt a rigorous and formulaic approach rather than solely relying on typical essay-writing styles.
What role do the G7 and G20 Research Groups play in Global Governance?
The G7 and G20 research groups play a key role in global governance by measuring compliance with existing policies. As Angus MacKellar explains, “In measuring compliance with set policies and ensuring accountability with those policies, we are [ensuring]… those policies are carried out.”
An interesting analogy that Angus illustrates is how the research groups act as if they were an insurance policy. The commitments and promises made by member states are made for the future, and these promises must be held accountable as they are non-binding.
The core principle that the co-chairs of both research groups want to emphasize is their hope that member states will “…take a moment to think about how they will be looked upon for meeting or not meeting those promises,” as Angus notes.
In this manner, the G7 and G20 research groups are embedded within the framework of global governance—the kind of governance that is ever-changing for tomorrow, as measured by those at the research groups today.
