There are many examples of international groups that have become endless gabfests with little action. One of the most influential of these organizations has been the G8, profiled by BBC News (Sept. 17, 2008) It too, is showing its age and the need for reform.
In 1975, French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing suggested a meeting of heads of government would be a good idea. He invited the leaders of Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States to talks in France. That was the start of the G6.
G6 Expands to G8
In 1976, Canada was invited to join the club whose only requirements were a large capitalist economy and a democratic system of government. For 20 years, these seven nations gathered and tried to arrange the world’s geopolitical agenda.
Two very big players on the world stage – China and the Soviet Union – remained outside the G7. Both countries had communist economic systems and both were dictatorships; hence, no membership cards.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and began to toy with capitalism and democracy. By 1997, Russia was judged to have sufficiently reformed itself to join the organization, making it the G8.
G8 Group Accused of Being too Elitist
The group is an informal meeting of leaders. It does not have permanent offices or employees. Leaders may agree on policies and objectives but compliance is voluntary. Originally, the group focussed on economic issues, but political concerns have become increasingly important agenda items in recent years.
For a couple of days each year the G8 leaders gather in one of the member states and discuss the affairs of the world. The meetings have become lightning rods for public discontent. As BBC News reports, “Critics of the G8 have accused the body of representing the interests of an elite group of industrialized nations, to the detriment of the needs of the wider world.”
Important Nations Missing from Group
In a leader just prior to the G8 meeting in Japan (July 5, 2008), The Economist was blunt. It called the G8 summit an occasion in which “Cigar smoke and ignorance are in the air.” The magazine asked what’s the point of “the group that allegedly runs the world” talking about important issues in the absence of those with major influence. It cited discussing:
- oil prices without the world’s biggest producer, Saudi Arabia, at the table
- the falling value of the U.S. dollar without China, which owns $800 billion worth of American debt
- placing sanctions on Zimbabwe because of dictator Robert Mugabe’s awful human rights record with no African present
- “Global warming, AIDS, or inflation, without anybody from the emerging world.”
G8 Expands to Include Wider Views
The G8 has tried to answer the criticism that it’s an exclusive club. Representatives from a wider spectrum of the world’s population are invited to attend its meetings as observers but not as full participants. Such countries as Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa are known as “outreach” states. But, even though consulted informally, they still feel left out.
Enter the G20, first proposed by former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in the mid-1990s. To start with it was a gathering of finance ministers; the idea that it should be something more did not find favour among the world’s major states.
Then, along came the financial collapse of 2008, and the realization this was a problem too big for the small club to fix on its own. U.S. President George W. Bush asked the leaders of 20 countries to gather in Washington in November 2008. As Jeffrey Simpson wrote in The Globe and Mail (Nov. 18, 2008), “It was, de facto, a kind of Group of 20, convened to discuss the world economic crisis whose epicentre is the U.S. under Mr. Bush’s catastrophic leadership.”
G20 Formally Launched in Pittsburgh
Now, the existence of the G20 has become more formalized. On Sept. 24 and 25, 2009, the leaders of the 20 member states gathered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a summit. Brazil, South Africa, Argentina, Australia, South Korea, and several other states attended. This meeting marked the start of another attempt to create a functional group of nations that can deal realistically with the problems faced by the world. At the same time, the G8 is being pushed to the sidelines.
Mitch Potter, in The Toronto Star (September 26, 2009) reported that, “The symbolic handover of decision-making power on economic issues from the G8 is expected in Huntsville, Ontario next June, when Canada hosts back-to-back summits that will effectively relegate the G8 club to a fate that, while uncertain, will certainly be secondary.”
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