G20 leaders, wrestling with the US-China trade war and ascendant populism at their 10th summit this week, face a new crisis following Russia's naval confrontation with Ukraine.
In November 2008, countries representing four fifths of the world's economic output came together to forge a collective front against the financial panic then engulfing the West.
A decade on, that unity has vanished as US President Donald Trump shreds the consensus underpinning international trade.
Other G20 countries such as Brazil, Italy and Mexico have turned to populist leaders, or, in Britain's case, are grappling with a fractious electorate's decision to file for divorce from the European Union.
And this year's G20 host Argentina is enduring its own economic crisis, necessitating the deployment of more than 22,000 police against the threat of mass protests when the heads of government convene on Friday and Saturday.
"I would say that the G20 has lost a lot of the steam that it once had in the global financial crisis in 2008, 2009," Matthew Goodman, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said during a briefing previewing the summit.
"The last summits have been somewhat disappointing and marked by contention, particularly over trade-related issues. And I would expect that to be the case again."
His economic advisor Larry Kudlow told reporters on Tuesday that "the president said there is a good possibility that we can make a deal and he is open to it."
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