ABSTRACT
This chapter applies the familiar triple analysis political leadership, reconciling interdependence and collective management - to the summits of this series. The traditional economic agenda for the summits had been economic policy, monetary issues, trade, energy and relations with developing countries. By the fourth series, only one and a half of these traditional items regularly occupied the leaders themselves: first, international trade and, second, debt problems, a specific aspect of relations with the third world. In preparing for the London III 1991 summit, John Major instructed his Sherpa team to check these inflationary trends. But they made only limited progress, as circumstances were against them. Leaving aside foreign policy issues, six themes dominated the subject matter treated in the fourth summit series. There were two traditional themes - trade and debt; two transnational issues - the environment and drugs; and two historic changes - Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.
