November was an extraordinary month. Global leaders gathered for four major meetings: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Cambodia, the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Thailand and the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Egypt.
What was striking wasn’t the timing of the meetings, but rather the evidence they produced that the tide might be turning away from confrontation toward renewed cooperation in the international arena.
In recent years, the global economy has appeared to be drifting away from multilateral engagement and collaboration, toward nationalism-fueled competition. Some — particularly emerging economies — attempted to resist this trend, such as by refusing to back Western sanctions on Russia. But such efforts appeared to have had minimal impact.