During the height of the 2009 financial crisis, when there was a real and present danger of banks seizing up due to a lack of liquidity, the then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown altered the geopolitical architecture. Brown moved with a sense of urgency to formalize the Group of 20 nations. The strategy was sound. He wanted to bring countries representing 80% of GDP under one umbrella, bridge the gap between the developed and the developing world and, most importantly, tap the $4 trillion of surplus funds that still exist within the BRICS economies. In the context of a financial crisis, the strategy worked. Four years later, however, geopolitics is trumping economics. The G20 has become an unwieldy group of countries with different priorities, and without political backing from Washington.
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The G20 is being held in St Petersburg, but focus will be on tensions between  Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama
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Discussions are meant to be around economics, but will be overshadowed by Syria
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Emerging markets have been suffering as demand for commodities drop, and currencies have collapsed
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John Defterios writes the G20 has become an unwieldy group of countries with different priorities
He is not holding out great hope for the discussions in @placeholder.