ABSTRACT
At the centre of the international community’s effort to govern the far-reaching new processes now underway in global information technology, finance, and trade stands the G7 of major market democracies and its politically oriented institutional twin involving Russia, the G8 (Hodges, Kirton, and Daniels 1999; Hajnal 1999; Bayne 2000). The G8 has a comprehensive array of overlapping and interconnected economic, social-protection, political, and security concerns that each summit now addresses to varying degrees. Economic issues include how best to position a country and the international community in the new economy, the continued liberalisation of international finance and trade for the old economy, and the lessons to be drawn from the major economic and financial crises that have afflicted the world with ever more severity as the era of globalisation intensifies (Kaiser, Kirton, and Daniels 2000). Social initiatives may focus on ways to sustain economic development, for instance through debt forgiveness for the group of Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs), and on ways to protect social values and the poor in the face of acute financial crises (Kirton, Daniels, and Frey tag 2001). They may also focus on the ecological and social consequences of trade and finance liberalisation, issues of environmental degradation and climate change, or the spread of infectious diseases. Political concerns may relate to rehabilitation and démocratisation, as in Russia. Furthermore, security concerns may comprise nuclear proliferation, regional security, money laundering, terrorism, and cyber-crime.
