Guiding global order: G8 governance in the twenty-first century

Book abstract:

This book is the latest in Ashgate's G8 and Global Governance Series which examine the issues, the institutions and the strategies of participants in the Group of Eight network as well as the other actors and challenges at the centre of global governance in the twenty first century. In addition to a discussion of the role of the G7/8 in the broader context of global order, this new volume focuses on the key issues of the Cologne Summit in 1999 and the subsequent developments.

Using the Cologne Summit in 1999 as a starting point, the book is divided into four parts, each of which discuss a key area dealt with at the Cologne Summit. Part one analyses the core economic issues which have been central to the G7's operation over the last twenty five years and which have taken on even more importance in today's, more integrated world. Part two focuses on the transnational hard security issues which have become ever more central to the G8, including debt relief for the world's poorest countries and the protection of the global ecosystem. The final chapter of this part examines the questions of regionalism and globalism from the European perspective with a comparative analysis of the European Union and the G7/8 group. The evolution of global governance in the twenty-first century is discussed in part three, particularly the creation at the Cologne summit of a new G20 group that brings together many of the world's middle powers and emerging economies. The impact of the euro on G7/8 macroeconomic policies is also examined as is the group's relationship with China following calls by Germany and Japan, the 1999/200 summit hosts, that China should be included in the annual summit. Part four provides an overall assessment of the analyses in the book and concludes on the degree, direction and durability of the role that the G7/8 has to make in global governance in the twenty-first century.

Students of international relations and politics will find this book not only provides them with a detailed analysis of the activities of the G7/G8 group but also a broad overview of global governance.