The term G-Zero world refers to an emerging vacuum of power in international politics created by a decline of Western influence and the domestic focus of the governments of developing states.
The term G-Zero was first coined by political scientists Ian Bremmer and David F. Gordon. G-Zero became the main theme of Ian Bremmer's book, Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World (Portfolio, May 2012).
It is a reference to a perceived shift away from the preeminence of the Group of Seven industrialized countries and the expanded Group of Twenty, which includes major emerging powers like China, India, Brazil, Turkey and others. It is also a rejection of terms like G2, often used to identify a possible strategic partnership between the U.S. and Chinese governments, or G3, which represents an attempt to align U.S., European and Japanese interests to defend free market democracy from the rise of Chinese-inspired state-dominated capitalism.
Those who argue that the G-Zero has become the current international order warn that the G7 has become obsolete, that the G20 offers too many competing visions of the proper role of government in an economy to produce well-coordinated policies, that China has no interest in the responsibilities that come with a G2, and that America, Europe and Japan are too mired in internal problems to forge a common approach to economic and security policy.
In an article called “From G8 to G20 to G-Zero: Why no one wants to take charge in the new global order," Ian Bremmer writes that making compromises are difficult since each country has their own values and developed countries have voters that want their leader's focus to be domestic community, not the international one. Some of these developed countries include: the United States, Britain, Germany, France, and Japan. As developed countries start to focus on their domestic issues, the lack of global leadership increases which in turn increases the transnational problems. As global leadership decreases, clashes between countries are also increasing such as America and China having different views on “statedriven and free-market varieties of capitalism”. There are also issues arising in East Asia between nations such as China and Japan in the East China Sea. The U.S. has to also focus on changes in their energy sector and whether they should participate in Syria’s civil war.
Bremmer explains that governments can adapt to the G-Zero through focusing on regional solutions such as China’s deals with the Association of South-East Asian Nations (A.S.E.A.N.) and the United States’ progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Governments can also form relationships with a diversity of partners. However some countries may still not be able to adapt to the G-0 because of three impacting events in the world: "China's rise, Middle East turmoil and the redesign of Europe". Countries affected by these events would be Japan, Israel and Britain.
The concept of the G-Zero has been criticized by some who argue that it overstates the decline in America’s political and economic power and underestimates the willingness of developing countries to play a larger role on the international stage.