ABSTRACT
The G7 and G8 summits have had a long run: beginning as the G7 back in the 1970s; adding Russia in 1998 to become the G8; and suspending Russia in 2014 to return to G7. 1 The summits’ performance varied greatly and they were widely criticised, but never openly challenged. Yet when the financial and economic crisis became acute in November 2008, the G8 summit was set aside; the G20 finance ministers’ body was promoted to summit level instead. Within a year the G20 summit had proclaimed itself ‘the premier forum for our economic cooperation’. The early G20 summits were very productive and stimulated action that brought the crisis under control. Yet later the G20’s performance declined and it was not clear how it could rediscover its original momentum. This chapter examines how the G7 and G8 summit reinvented itself several times, after periods of disappointing results. It draws lessons from this for the revival of the G20.
