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===Permanent G8 participants===
===Permanent G8 participants===
*{{flagicon|Canada}} '''[[Canada]]''' <!--[[Stephen Harper]] or [[Michael Ignatieff]]-->
*{{flagicon|Canada}} '''[[Canada]]''' <!--[[Stephen Harper]] or [[Michael Ignatieff]]-->
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*[[Image:Flag of Europe.svg|22px|Europe]] '''[[European Union]]''' <!-- [[Jose Manuel Barroso]], President of [[European Commission|EU Commission]] --><ref>[http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3465359,00.html "EU Promises Food Crisis Aid of 1 Billion Euros Before G8 Summit,"] Deutsche Welle (Bonn). July 7, 2008.</ref>
*{{flagicon|France}} '''[[France]]''' <!--[[Nicolas Sarkozy]]-->
*{{flagicon|France}} '''[[France]]''' <!--[[Nicolas Sarkozy]]-->
*{{flagicon|Germany}} '''[[Germany]]''' <!--[[Angela Merkel]]-->
*{{flagicon|Germany}} '''[[Germany]]''' <!--[[Angela Merkel]]-->
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* '''[[African Union]]'''
*{{flagicon|CIS}} '''[[Commonwealth of Independent States]]'''
*{{flagicon|CIS}} '''[[Commonwealth of Independent States]]'''
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*[[Image:Flag of Europe.svg|22px|Europe]] '''[[European Union]]''' <!-- [[Jose Manuel Barroso]], President of [[European Commission|EU Commission]] --><ref>[http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3465359,00.html "EU Promises Food Crisis Aid of 1 Billion Euros Before G8 Summit,"] Deutsche Welle (Bonn). July 7, 2008.</ref>
*[[Image:Flag of IAEA.svg|20px|IAEA]] '''[[International Atomic Energy Agency]]'''
*[[Image:Flag of IAEA.svg|20px|IAEA]] '''[[International Atomic Energy Agency]]'''
*<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[Image:IEA logo.gif|22px|]] -->'''[[International Energy Agency]]'''
*<!-- Image with inadequate rationale removed: [[Image:IEA logo.gif|22px|]] -->'''[[International Energy Agency]]'''

Revision as of 09:28, 19 March 2010

The 37th G8 summit is to be held in France in 2011. The date and venue of this meeting remains unknown; and the future of the G8 in 2011 is uncertain. The locations of previous G8 summits to have been hosted by France include Rambouillet (1975); Versailles (1982); Grande Arche, Paris (1989); Lyon (1996); and Évian-les-Bains (2003).

Overview

The Group of Seven (G7) was an unofficial forum which brought together the heads of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada starting in 1976. The G8, meeting for the first time in 1997, was formed with the addition of Russia.[1] In addition, the President of the European Commission has been formally included in summits since 1981.[2] The summits were not meant to be linked formally with wider international institutions; and in fact, a mild rebellion against the stiff formality of other international meetings was a part of the genesis of cooperation between France's President Giscard d'Estaing and Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt as they conceived the initial summit of the Group of Six (G6) in 1975.[3]

The G8 summits during the twenty-first century have inspired widespread debates, protests and demonstrations; and the two- or three-day event becomes more than the sum of its parts, elevating the participants, the issues and the venue as focal points for activist pressure.[4]

Leaders at the summit

Permanent G8 participants

France would like to see China become a full member by the time the in 2011 is organized.[6]

Invited leaders (partial participation)

A number of national leaders are traditionally invited to attend the summit and to participate in some, but not all, G8 summit activities.[6]

G8+5 leaders

The G8 plus the five largest emerging economies has come to be known as G8+5,[6] and these are:

Heads of international organizations

Leaders of the major international organizations have also been invited to attend previous summit meetings; and this practice is expected to continue,[6] including:

Priorities

Traditionally, the host country of the G8 summit sets the agenda for negotiations, which take place primarily amongst multi-national civil servants in the weeks before the summit itself, leading to a joint declaration which all countries can agree to sign.[7]

Issues

The summit was intended as a venue for resolving differences among its members. As a practical matter, the summit was also conceived as an opportunity for its members to give each other mutual encouragement in the face of difficult economic decisions.[3]

Schedule and Agenda

A tentative agenda for the 37th G8 summit will include some issues which remain unresolved from previous summits, including calls for more concrete action and measures, not just principles and rhetoric -- not just another "talk shop."[8]

Citizens' responses and authorities' counter-responses

Protesters and demonstrations

Protest groups and other activists are expected to make a showing at the summit.[9] Forward planning for this specific G8 summit is likely to have begun in advance of the 2009 summit in Italy. Activist organizations are expected to anticipate that early planning will result in greater networking effectiveness for this and other summits.[10]

Not all demonstrations are expected to focused in opposition to some issue. At the 2005 Scotland summit, for the first time the tens of thousands of people protesting outside were actually supporting the summit's agenda of African aid;[1] and some activists traveled to Hokkaido in 2008 for the same purpose.[11]

Not all demonstrations will originate from outside the local community.[12]

Citizen journalism

Citizens' groups are expected to organize citizen journalism centers to provide independent media coverage of the G8 summit and the expected protests. In a sense, this article will evolve as the work product of something like citizen journalism, evovlving through serial drafts as part of "the first rough draft of history."[13]

Accomplishments

The G8 summit is an international event which is observed and reported by news media, but the G8's continuing relevance after more than 30 years is somewhat unclear[14] -- and the prospective accomplishments of the 37th G8 summit remain unclear as well.

The G8 summit brings leaders together not so they can dream up quick fixes, but to talk and think about them together[15] and the international media is expected to focus on questions about what the summit does manage to accomplish.

Infrastructure Consortium for Africa

The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa (ICA) was established at the 31st G8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland in the United Kingdom in 2005. Since that time, the ICA’s annual meeting is traditionally hosted by the country holding the Presidency of the G8 -- in 2011 in France.[16]

Security

Security planning is designed to ensure that the summit's formal agenda can remain the primary focus of the attendees' discussions. Pre-planning will likely involve conducting security reviews of the area and event.[17]

Business opportunity

For some, the G8 summit becomes a profit-generating event; as for example, the G8 Summit magazines which have been published under the auspices of the host nations for distribution to all attendees since 1998.[18]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b Saunders, Doug. "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders," Globe and Mail (Toronto). July 5, 2008.
  2. ^ Reuters: "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?", July 3, 2008.
  3. ^ a b Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations, p. 205.
  4. ^ "Influencing Policy on International Development: G8," BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development). 2008.
  5. ^ "EU Promises Food Crisis Aid of 1 Billion Euros Before G8 Summit," Deutsche Welle (Bonn). July 7, 2008.
  6. ^ a b c d Welch, David. "Canada has an opportunity to remake world summitry," Toronto Star. July 18, 2008.
  7. ^ Learn, Rob. "Huntsville to serve as world stage in 2010," Huntsville Forrester (Huntsville, Ontario). June 25, 2008.
  8. ^ Kaur, Hardev. "G20 leaders must deliver on their promises," The New Straits Times (Malaysia). February 20, 2009.
  9. ^ Andreatta, David. "Brace yourself, Huntsville. The G8 is coming," Globe and Mail (Toronto). July 12, 2008.
  10. ^ "Update: G8...Forward plan with others for future G8 summits," BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development). 2008.
  11. ^ "We're not G8 protesters, says Nighy," Star (Sheffield). July 8, 2008.
  12. ^ Ramcharan, Cheryl. "Now is a good time to define our goals for the G8 Summit," Huntsville Forrester. July 16, 2008.
  13. ^ Braiker, Brian. "History's New First Draft," Newsweek (New York). July 8, 2008; Keyes, Ralph. The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and when, p. 107.
  14. ^ Lee, Don. "On eve of summit, G-8's relevance is unclear," Los Angeles Times. July 6, 2008.
  15. ^ Feldman, Adam. "What's Wrong With The G-8," Forbes (New York). July 7, 2008.
  16. ^ "Meeting to Discuss Crisis Impact in Africa's Infrastructure Development," Afrol News. March 2, 2009.
  17. ^ Dash, Carlye Malchuk. "Details on G8 security may come next month," Huntsville Forester. January 28, 2009.
  18. ^ Prestige Media: "official" G8 Summit magazine

References

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2011
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