Staying Together: The G8 Summit Confronts the 21st Century

Following on from Hanging In There, this comprehensive volume empirically covers the summits from the UK meeting in Birmingham in 1998 to the UK meeting in 2005. In essence, this study reviews a full G8 cycle. The analytical framework rests on three general summit objectives: political leadership, reconciling international/domestic and collective management, and six subject-specific performance indicators: leadership, effectiveness, solidarity, durability, acceptability, consistency. Including a detailed look at summits pre-Birmingham, it reviews developments from 1998 by examining each summit from the subsequent summit performances, such as financial issues and debt, trade issues and development, to the most recent discussion on Africa, terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Moreover, it covers the development of the G8 apparatus, the impact of Russia’s membership and links with non-G8 governments and non-state actors. It concludes with an assessment as to whether the G8 achieves its three general summit objectives.