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The process of globalization is accelerating and involving an increasing number of countries in the international political and economic network. In this context the question of how to shape the globalization process remains on top of the agenda. Especially the significance of large emerging countries, like Brazil, has recently attracted international public attention: Problems of global dimension and global relevance can no longer be solved without those important nations. Thus, major emerging countries will have to assume further responsibility in a system of global governance.

However, in the debate at the national as well as at the international levels the interests of the emerging countries in shaping the globalization process are largely underrepresented: What is their perception of the present global order? Which strategies do they pursue in the medium as well as in the long run? What kind of demands and constructive ideas do emerging countries want to introduce in the shaping of an increasingly multipolar global order?

With the project “Global Economic and Social Order” of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung the dialogue with major emerging countries about globalization issues shall be enlarged. The selected countries Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa (the “Outreach” countries of the G8 process, also named “O-5”) are not only defined by their economic size and their growth rates, but also by other aspects of global governance: their voice in international committees and fora, their share in ecological and social problems with global impact, their relevance for regional political and security-political stability. The growing importance of those both economically and increasingly politically influential states can already be observed in the systems of global governance. This development will intensify in the decades to come.

The project “Global Economic and Social Order” will take up the questions mentioned above and face up to answering them with the support of the international network of the KAS. Comparable catalogues of questions and designs of expert talks in all of the five selected countries shall ensure a certain comparability. The results shall be brought into the national discussion in Germany and via the offices abroad also in the “Outreach” countries.

The following issues which regroup five main topics are of special interest regarding the project. They shall be analyzed in all five major emerging countries in the scope of a concentrated catalogue of questions. The Foundation’s respective country representatives will charge Think Tanks in the five “Outreach” countries with the focused and short answering of the selected questions. This process shall be followed by an experts’ talk on site in order to discuss the results. The respective results shall be presented and conclusions shall be brought together in the scope of a final conference in Berlin. A final paper, written in Berlin headquarters of the KAS, shall summarize the results of the whole project cycle.