In the Issue

• How Leading Nations Lead
• Nonstate Actors and the Changing Global Order
• Weakest Nations Pose Greatest Threat
• G-20 to Round out Busy Year of Meetings for World Leaders
• Clinton Emphasizes Women's Rights in Securing Fragile States

Features

How Leading Nations Lead. As more and more global challenges cry out for increased international cooperation, there is an urgent need for the leaders of the world’s influential nations to combine efforts for decisive action. The agenda is full for the upcoming Pittsburgh G-20 summit but, argues Stanley Foundation program officer David Shorr, world leaders should also update the process of summitry itself. Read the four main guidelines Shorr recommends for such a reform effort.

Nonstate Actors and the Changing Global Order. Across politics, economics, culture, military strength, and more, a new group of countries has growing influence over the future of the world. Big, cross-cutting issues, like the role of nonstate actors who live, work, or fight across national borders, are also playing a part of changing the global order. Learn more about how civil society groups, multinational corporations, terrorists, and others are increasingly having an impact on global affairs. This article is part of a series related to the Stanley Foundation effort "Rising Powers: The New Global Reality."

Weakest Nations Pose Greatest Threat. The most disturbing headlines in the world today all seem to share something in common—problems stemming from countries too weak to control their own territory and provide opportunity for their citizens. These "fragile states" are seen as a major contributor to (or even the cause of) many global challenges. The Stanley Foundation’s Keith Porter shares why the world needs a more complete toolbox to address the world's weakest nations.

Also, in our newest edition of Courier, Pauline Baker of the Fund for Peace makes the case for "sustainable security" or "the ability of societies to solve their own problems peacefully without an outside military or administrative presence." Stanley Foundation program officer Sean Harder examines lingering instability in Kenya. And the foundation’s Michael Kraig looks at what works and what doesn't in helping states move from fragility to stability.

Beyond the Headlines

G-20 to Round out Busy Year of Meetings for World Leaders. When world leaders gather in Pittsburgh next week for the G-20 summit, it will mark the fourth such summit of presidents and prime ministers in a year—a pace that some say has become unsustainable and stresses the need for summit reform. Already, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he'll push to host an expanded G-14 versus a G-8 when his country hosts the meeting in 2011. Perhaps worried that its influence would be diluted by more members, Japan has officially criticized the idea, demonstrating just how difficult reforming the world’s most exclusive club might be. Regardless, it's clear the G process will need to accommodate emerging powers and take on greater issues like climate change and security. While the likely focus of next week’s G-20 will be on the global financial crisis and the protestors who are already gathering, the real question will be about what comes next in summit-level diplomacy.

Clinton Emphasizes Women's Rights in Securing Fragile States. During her August visit to Africa, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emphasized the critical role women’s rights play in building stable nations. "The social, political, and economic marginalization of women across Africa has left a void in this continent that undermines progress and prosperity every day," Clinton said in a speech at the African Growth and Opportunity Forum (AGOA) in Nairobi, Kenya. While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s attention to women's livelihoods in the developing world is longstanding, new attention has been brought to the issue. Many are looking at women's access to participation in civil and economic society as central to securing fragile states rather than a sideline issue to traditional hard security concerns, such as terrorism and arms control. A recent New York Times Magazine article by Nicolas Kristof and Sherlyn WuDunn drew special attention to the connection between women’s rights and state stability. Kristof and WuDunn argue that "greater female involvement in society and the economy appears to undermine extremism and terrorism." Many nonprofits and microfinance institutions back this theory as well.

"No nation can succeed in spreading prosperity or increasing security if it leaves out or leaves behind more than half of the population," Secretary Clinton wrote in an op-ed in South Africa's City Press. "Women can be the rock on which a freer, safer and more prosperous Africa is built. They just need the opportunity."