ABSTRACT

Despite the large number of regional and global summits there is very little known about the functioning and impact of this particular type of diplomatic practice. While recognizing that the growing importance of summits is a universal phenomenon, this volume takes advantage of the richness of the Americas experiment to offer a theoretically grounded comparative analysis of contemporary summitry.

The book addresses questions such as:

  • How effective have summits been ?
  • How have civil society and other non-state actors been involved in summits?
  • How have summits impacted on the management of regional affairs?

Filling a significant void in the literature, this volume offers an original contribution helping to understand how summitry has become a central feature of world politics. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of diplomacy, international organizations, and global/regional governance.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

Summitry and governance in comparative perspective 1

part II|104 pages

Case studies—Americas

chapter 3|16 pages

The Summits of the Americas process

Unfulfilled expectations 1

chapter 4|17 pages

Presidential diplomacy in UNASUR

Coming together for crisis management or marking turfs?

chapter 5|18 pages

Summitry in the Caribbean Community

A fundamental feature of regional governance

chapter 7|17 pages

Presidential summitry in Central America

A predictable failure?

part III|54 pages

Case studies—World

chapter 10|16 pages

Assessing the role of G7/8/20 meetings in global governance

Processes, outcomes, and counterfactuals

chapter 11|18 pages

BRICS and re-shaping the model of summitry

Subordinating the regional to the global

part IV|26 pages

Practitioners' point of view