G8

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  On the 24th of March 2014, the G8 effectively ceased to exist. Seven governments cancelled a planned summit in the Russian city of Sochi and suspended Russia's membership. The forum had gathered heads of government annually since 1997, representing the world's largest high-income economies. In 2012, its member nations together generated 50.1 percent of global nominal GDP. What the club accomplished, and what it could not survive, are the threads this documentary follows.

• 2. From Six to Eight

  ›

  Canada's addition in 1976 expanded the forum from six members to seven and gave it the name Group of Seven. The European Economic Community, predecessor to the European Union, joined the meetings in the 1980s as a "nonenumerated" participant. That designation meant the EU could not host or chair summits. The restriction held for decades. The 40th summit of G8 heads of government was the first at which the European Union served as host and chair.

  Russia's path to membership began after the 1994 G7 summit in Naples. Following that meeting, Russian officials started holding separate sessions with G7 leaders. The arrangement was nicknamed the Political 8, or P8, and sometimes called the G7+1. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President Bill Clinton then extended a formal invitation to Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin attended first as a guest observer and later as a full participant. His inclusion was viewed as encouragement for his capitalist reforms. Russia formally joined the group in 1998, and the forum took the name Group of Eight.

  In 2005, the United Kingdom initiated a practice that brought five major emerging economies into the conversations. Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa were invited to participate in G8 meetings. Those sessions became known as the G8+5 format, and the five outreach nations were also called the Group of Five. That new format gave the G8 a direct line to five of the world's leading emerging markets.

• 3. How the Club Worked

  ›

  The G8 had no permanent secretariat and no fixed offices for its members. This was deliberate, setting the forum apart from international bodies like the United Nations or the World Bank. The presidency rotated annually among member states, with each new term beginning on the 1st of January. The fixed rotation order ran: France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Canada.

  Ministerial meetings throughout the year covered portfolios as diverse as health, energy, terrorism, trade, and the environment. Finance ministers met four times a year. The president of the European Commission participated in all summit events as an equal. The country holding the presidency planned and hosted those ministerial meetings and convened the mid-year leaders' summit.

  In June 2005, justice and interior ministers from G8 countries agreed to launch an international database on pedophiles. G8 officials also agreed to pool data on terrorism, subject to individual countries' privacy and security laws.

• 4. The Global Agenda

  ›

  At the 2009 L'Aquila summit, G8 members pledged $22 billion to address the global food supply. By 2015-93 percent of those funds had been disbursed to projects covering sustainable agriculture and emergency food aid. After the 2008 financial crisis, the G8's agenda shifted increasingly toward food and energy challenges.

  In 2012, President Barack Obama asked G8 leaders to adopt the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition initiative. The stated aim was to help rural populations produce more food and sell it in local, regional, and global markets. Ghana became one of the first six African countries to sign that year. Critics observed that many stakeholders, including farmers and academics, had almost no knowledge of the initiative. The surrounding programs were described as "a dizzying array of regional and national agriculture programmes that are inaccessible to ordinary people."

  At the Heiligendamm Summit in 2007, the G8 acknowledged a proposal from the European Union for a worldwide initiative on efficient energy use. The group agreed to explore, alongside the International Energy Agency, the best means of promoting energy efficiency internationally. The G8 joined China, India, South Korea, and the European Community on the 8th of June 2008. Together they established the International Partnership for Energy Efficiency Cooperation. Japan held the G8 presidency that year and hosted the signing at an energy ministerial meeting in Aomori. Also in June, G8 Finance Ministers met in Osaka on the 13th and 14th, preparing for the 34th Summit in Toyako, Hokkaido. They adopted the G8 Action Plan for Climate Change to engage private and public financial institutions on the issue.

• 5. Crimea and the Unraveling

  ›

  Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quick to downplay what the other members had decided. He pointed out that major international decisions were made by the G20 countries, not the G8. The other G8 members had stopped short of permanent expulsion, leaving the door formally open for Russia's return.

  In April 2015, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Russia would be welcomed back if the Minsk Protocol were implemented. By 2016, Steinmeier was arguing that none of the major international conflicts could be solved without Russia. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also called for Russia's return that year. Abe described Russia's involvement as "crucial to tackling multiple crises in the Middle East." In January 2017, Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano called for "resuming the G8 format with Russia and ending the atmosphere of the Cold War."

  On the 13th of January 2017, Russia announced it would permanently leave the G8. Several G7 governments stated they would still welcome Russia's return. In 2018, German Bundestag members Sahra Wagenknecht and Alexander Graf Lambsdorff called for Russia to be invited to that year's summit in Canada. Christian Lindner of the Free Democratic Party, also a Bundestag member, argued that Putin should be "asked to join the table of the G7." Better, Lindner said, to "talk with him and not about him." US President Donald Trump backed Russia's reinstatement, with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte supporting that view. Several G7 members quickly rejected Trump's suggestion. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov then declared that Russia was no longer interested in rejoining. The G20, he said, was sufficient. At the 2018 summit in Canada, the G7 announced continued sanctions against Russia. Members also declared readiness to take further restrictive measures if the Minsk Agreement remained unimplemented.

• 6. The Relevance Question

  ›

  Vladimir Putin did not attend the 2012 G8 summit at Camp David. Foreign Policy magazine remarked that the summit had "generally outlived its usefulness as a viable international gathering of foreign leaders." At their September 2009 Pittsburgh summit, G20 leaders had already announced the G20 would replace the G8 as the main economic council of wealthy nations.

  British Prime Minister David Cameron defended the forum in 2012. "Some people ask, does the G8 still matter, when we have a Group of 20?" he said. He was direct: "The G8 is a group of like-minded countries that share a belief in free enterprise as the best route to growth." Cameron argued that eight nations generating roughly half of global GDP could still set standards and solve global problems.

  In "Unraveling Global Apartheid," political analyst Titus Alexander described the 1996 G7 as the "cabinet" of global minority rule. He saw it as holding a coordinating role in world affairs. In 2012, the Heritage Foundation criticized the G8 for advocating food security without making room for economic freedom. China had by that point surpassed every economy but the United States, undercutting the G8's claim to represent the world's most powerful economies.

  On the 11th of June 2022, State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin posted to Telegram with a proposal. Countries willing to build "an equal dialogue and mutually beneficial relations" would form, together with Russia, a "new G8." The countries he listed were China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Iran, and Turkey. No updates on the proposal had emerged since. Five of the seven nations Volodin named were already members of BRICS.

• 7. The Youth Summit

  ›

  The first youth counterpart to the G8 met in Saint Petersburg in 2006, under the name International Student Model G8. Young leaders from G8 nations and the European Union gathered to discuss international affairs and draft a consensus statement. That document, the Final Communique, was presented to G8 heads of government at the end of each summit. The conferences represented participants aged between 18 and 35.

  The first summit to carry the Y8 name took place in May 2012 in Puebla, Mexico. That same year, a separate Youth G8 convened in Washington, D.C. The Y8 was organized by a global network of youth-led organizations called The IDEA, the International Diplomatic Engagement Association. Member organizations ran their own national delegate selection processes; the host country managed the summit itself. One such organization, the Young European Leadership association, recruited and sent EU delegates.

  The 2014 Y8 Summit had been scheduled for Moscow, but it was suspended following the same diplomatic rupture that ended the parent forum. Similar conferences continued from 2016 under the name Y7 Summit, keeping the format alive well after the G8 had ceased to operate.