"This account of the 'L-20 project', led by the Centre for Global Studies (CFGS) at the University of Victoria, describes and analyses a 3-year mobilization designed as an alternative to the political deadlocks preventing progress on critical global issues. The L-20 would include leaders from the existing G-countries, augmented by key regional powers such as China, Brazil, India, Mexico, South Africa and Egypt. The book traces the origins and findings of the project, which generated a broad array of cutting-edge research and over twenty substantive, action-oriented workshops involving hundreds of experts and practitioners around the world. The workshop series examined in detail the operational possibilities for a Leaders Group addressing a range of issues, including infectious disease control, climate change/global warming, energy security, nuclear proliferation, management of international financial crises, and the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation, to name just a few. In the context of a rapidly globalizing world, the book addresses the classical problems of international governance."--Jacket.