09:18 am
G-8: More Than a Photo Op? (Guest Post)
Keith Porter, director of policy and outreach at the Stanley Foundation, reports from the site of the G-8 summit. His opinions here are not necessarily those of the foundation.
The 2009 G8 Summit has begun. World leaders have arrived (although Chinese President Hu Jintao has already left to deal with the violence in Xinjiang), the table is ready, and the so called “family photo” of the eight official members is about to taken.
I am sitting in the Media Village with more than three thousand other journalists trying to figure out what is happening here in L’Aquila. Moments ago I walked past Bill Plante of CBS News and Chuck Todd of NBC News doing stand ups. And I saw Margaret Warner of the PBS NewsHour in a special room set aside just for the White House press corps.
(Yes, the White House press corps appears to have its own area. There are forty or so heads-of-state here, but only reporters who cover the U.S. president get this unique treatment.)
If all these reporters are here, the meeting must be important. Right?
In fact, it is important and these meetings should become even more important in the future. One storyline emerging here is about low expectations and Italian bungling of the agenda and logistics. A story in the Guardian claims (falsely, I believe) that Italy may be expelled from the G8 over mishandling of this summit. But in a larger sense, the world really needs these meetings to succeed.
The global financial crisis is far from over and a gaggle of security issues threaten the world in significant ways. All this while the traditional international organizations seem to lack the legitimacy and/or the willingness to take decisive action.
Now, the G8 and the G20 seem to be merging (informally) in both their membership and their agenda. Although they will meet in different arrangements and formats, roughly the same world leaders here in Italy will be in Pittsburgh in September for the G20. This is good because these participants make the events much more representative of the real and evolving power structure in the world. And much of the talk here is about which items from the G20 meeting last April in London can be advanced in Italy and which can be tackled later in Pennsylvania.
So if other global institutions have failed. . .and the G8 and G20 have become a movable feast of global power with a rolling agenda. . . one element still seems to be missing.
World leaders need to take the whole thing more seriously.
The tradition at G8 summits seems to be mostly about photo ops and lowest-common-denominator communiques. The presidents and prime ministers like the ego (and approval rating) boost which comes from being seen at these things. But they never seem to really sink their teeth into difficult issues and hammer out tough plans of action to solve real problems. And there is no meaningful accountability once they leave the room.
Some steps toward seriousness might include more discussions with countries outside the G8/20 to forge agreement and buy-in on the tough issues. And it should also mean serious efforts to work with appropriate international organizations on implementing decisions. And if the right agencies can’t be found, create them. My Stanley Foundation colleague David Shorr put it this way:
The Gx [meaning the G8, G20, or any other exclusive gathering of heads-of-state] will need to surround its decision-making with broad and intensive consultation with other governments and establish complementarity with more institutionalized intergovernmental organizations.
World leaders know they have to do something about nuclear proliferation, energy, Iran, North Korea, piracy, failed states, climate change, disease pandemics, and much more. If they aren’t going to make progress at the G8/20 meetings… then where?
Keith Porter is director of policy and outreach at the Stanley Foundation. But his opinions here are not necessarily those of the foundation.
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