The G-20, a policy group of industrialized nations, is on the path to becoming obsolete due to infighting and disputes that overshadow working towards the betterment of the global economy, say Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, and Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics.

"Over the past several months, the expanded group of leading economies has gone from a would-be concert of nations to a cacophony of competing voices as the urgency of the financial crisis has waned and the diversity of political and economic values within the group has asserted itself," Bremmer and Roubini write in the March/April edition of "Foreign Affairs" about the G-20, also known as the Group of 20.

Beijing, a rising economic superpower, has no desire to take on international leadership responsibilities, while other combos — such as a G-3 of the U.S., Japan and Europe wouldn't work either.

Nouriel Roubini

The "United States lacks the resources to continue as the primary provider of global public goods," Bremmer and Roubini say.

"Europe is fully occupied for the moment with saving the eurozone. Japan is likewise tied down with complex political and economic problems at home."

France, which holds the current G-20 presidency, has said the group should consider expanding its membership to include less wealthy countries.

Currently, about only five invited guests attend G-20 meetings.

"To be efficient you need to have a closed circle," says French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, according to the Associated Press.

"Equally, to be credible it has to be representative. and only having 25 nations is considered illegitimate or lacking representation by those 170 that are left out."