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Ngaire Woods talks to Juncture about the 'new world order', why predictions of China eclipsing the US are overstated and why the increasing power of emerging nations needn't mean the end for multilateralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the cooperation among the world's leading economies to respond to the 2008 global financial crises. It cites the progress on the promises of the Group of 20 (G20) countries plan such as disinterest on the promised global finance regulation, absence of the promised assistance to the poor countries and their unwillingness to give up its control of the international financial institutions. A full partnership and cooperation by the G7 economies with the new powers such as China, Brazil and India to stabilize global economy is suggested.

Rising economies including China, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Korea, India, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are subtly changing the rules of foreign aid with profound consequences for the role of multilateral institutions and conditionality. Fears abound that this new aid is bolstering rogue states, fuelling corruption, and increasing the debt burdens of poor countries. This article critically assesses these arguments before dissecting the attractions of emerging donors' aid against a background of established donors' failure to deliver on promises to increase aid, reduce conditionality, better coordinate and align aid efforts, and reform the aid architecture. It argues that a silent revolution is taking place whereby the emerging donors are not overtly attempting to overturn the rules of multilateral development assistance, nor to replace them. Rather, by quietly offering alternatives to aid-receiving countries, they are weakening the bargaining position of western donors. The resulting tensions underscore the urgency of reforming the multilateral aid system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]