The Group of 20 was elevated to a leaders’ level summit in 2008 on the premise of urgent, coordinated action to steer the global economy back from the brink of collapse. For a time, it functioned as the world’s premier crisis committee, a forum where the largest advanced and emerging economies could forge a common path. Today, that premise of unity appears increasingly tenuous. The G20 is a body defined by deep and growing political contradictions, a hodgepodge of advanced democracies, emerging-market democracies, and non-democracies whose internal political dynamics are diverging at an accelerating pace. The ideological battles being fought in national capitals—over the role of the state in the economy, the value of free trade, the definition of national identity, and the structure of the international order—are the primary determinants of the G20’s capacity to address global challenges. This reality suggests the G20 is less a cohesive steering committee and more an arena where these internal political fractures are shaping the future of global economic and financial stability.