ABSTRACT
The most visible sign of the Group of Eight's (G8) emergence as the centre of global governance for the new millennium is its recent institutional development. Meetings of G8 finance deputies in the summer of 1998 helped Japan implement the measures agreed to at Birmingham. There are few international institutions as maligned, mistrusted and misunderstood as the Group of Seven (G7). The prevailing pessimism, stands in sharp contrast to the observed proliferation and performance of the G7 over the past decade. The G7’s agenda has expanded as the linked economic and political issues that inspired its creation have been joined by a host of subjects once considered entirely domestic but which clearly call for a coordinated transnational response on a global basis. Over the long term, as market opening extends to deeper integration behind borders, and involves microeconomic and social policy in the 1990s, the interdependence among G7 members is increasing.
