ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the record of Canadian and United States (US) compliance with G7 Russian assistance commitments to the former Soviet Union (FSU) from 1989-1995. It argues that a number of important regime/institutional and concert theory variables account for very high levels of Summit compliance by Canada and the US. Cross-country variation is attributable largely to leaders' domestic political constraints and the effects of public opinion in both Canada and the US within this particular issue area. The evidence suggests that very high levels of compliance in political control were driven by high politics and the transformation within the SU that ultimately forced the G7 to respond in an effort to secure a successful and peaceful democratic transition in the region. Thus, the G7's immediate response to the crisis in 1990 was to create a special international task force that would study the Soviet economy.
