Contributor(s): Professor Yves Tiberghien | In the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008 and at the time of major impasses regarding both the future of the global trading regime and the Kyoto protocol, the global economic governance is in the midst of major uncertainties. The G20 process presents the most systematic effort since 1971 to rebalance the relation between market and governance and to establish an integrated structure of global governance. It has also become the key focal point of a new geopolitical "Great Game". At stake is not just the long-term sustainability of both the global financial and global trading systems and the balance between these two systems; but also the distribution of gains among nations and the transition of power from the US (and to a secondary extent Europe and Japan) to China and other emerging powers (India and Brazil). This talk offers both a conceptual approach to the balance between global rules and global markets at a time of major rebalancing and an empirical review of large issues embedded in the G20 process. It argues that China is the pivotal player in the G20 game and raises questions about the role and preferences of China and Japan in this larger process. As well, it raises question about the strategic position played by the UK. Professor Yves Tiberghien (Ph.D. Stanford University) is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia and a Research Associate at Science Po Paris. He specializes in comparative political economy and international political economy with empirical focus on Japan, China, and Europe. In 2007, Cornell University Press published his new book Entrepreneurial States: Reforming Corporate Governance in France, Japan, and Korea. Professor Tiberghien is currently working on a new multi-year project on the roles of Japan and China in global governance, as well as a project on the political consequences of economic inequality in Japan.