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LISA MULLINS: Nevermind the divisions between Europe and the US. There are plenty of other countries hoping to get something done at the G20 summit. The World's Jason Margolis takes a look.

JASON MARGOLIS: Global economic issues are often discussed by the G8. It represents 20th Century power: Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Russia, and the US. Then there's the G7: everybody in the club except Russia. The G-20 is a relatively new club. It was formed in 1999. Many economists and those in the financial world say the G20 reflects the new world order. Bob Hornats is Vice Chairman at Goldman Sachs International.

HORNATS: I think this is the most important summit the world has had for many, many decades – in part because we're in the middle of a major financial crisis, and in part because you're getting at the table this time, leaders of the countries that are needed to resolve the problem and that includes industrialized and emerging economies like China, India, Brazil, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa.

MARGOLIS: There's also Mexico, Turkey, and Indonesia. These nations weren't part of the discussion in years past because they really weren't that critical to the industrialized world's economy. But those days are gone, says Richard Rosecranz at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

ROSECRANCE: The interesting thing now is that these third world economies have just as much stake in the maintenance of the international economy as the major developed economies do. And that was not true in the past. In the past, so many of them thought of decoupling themselves from the world economy, and just developing in isolation through purely domestic consumption and expenditure. I think that era is over.

MARGOLIS: So while the debate between Europe and the US over what to do next is grabbing headlines, other nations also have a lot at stake at this week's summit. Take a country like Mexico. Matthew Slaughter, at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, says Mexico would like to talk about reinforcing trade protection.

SLAUGHTER: The US and Mexico have already found themselves, let's say, in a disagreement over implementing Mexican trucks coming into the United States as we agreed to in the North American Free Trade Agreement. That's a trade spat that has the threat to evolve into a broader trade war.

MARGOLIS: Brazil has other issues. Its goal is to end trade restrictions.

SLAUGHTER: We've had a long-standing trade barrier against Brazil in preventing their ethanol from coming into the United States.

MARGOLIS: The G20 summit is a chance to air all of these concerns. Then there are other emerging economies with more ambitious goals this week. Again, Bob Hornats at Goldman Sachs International.

HORNATS: China is the very interesting case of a country that is a major trading power, a major financial power, a major political power. And it has an enormous stake in the outcome of this crisis, in part because it has so much money invested around the world, particularly in the United States. But also China now, as an important power in the global system wants to make sure that it has a seat at the table that is commensurate with the size of its economy and its interest in the global system.

MARGOLIS: For example, China wants more influence at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. So how do you get everybody to agree this week? It's hard enough to get a group of 7 or 8 nations to see eye to eye on global finance. Desmond Lachman at the American Enterprise Institute says grouping 20 nations together – well, not much is going to get accomplished.

LACHMAN: The trouble is that bringing those countries to the table, what you're doing is just adding is a whole lot of additional voices, additional worldviews. So it's bad enough that the United States and Germany can't agree on either diagnosis or prescription of the policies. But then we bring in countries as diverse as Argentina, South Africa, Russia, China. All of these countries have got different agendas. So the prospect of getting agreement, I think, is heroic.

MARGOLIS: Nobody is really expecting the G20 leaders to solve the world's financial crisis this week. Some say a successful summit can be measured simply by the absence of failure. For The World, I'm Jason Margolis.

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