G8 Nations

Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States

History of the G8
The G8 began as the G6, which was founded in 1975 and consisted of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, and the United States. In 1977, Canada and the European Union joined the group to make it the G7. The G7 became the G8 when Russia joined in 1998. The G8 nations meet at their annual summit to tackle issues important to all member nations. They aim to identify ways to achieve their common goals, combat common threats and problems, and coordinate policies.

G8 Members
The Group of Eight (G8) refers to the group of eight highly industrialized nations--France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Japan, United States, Canada, and Russia--which hold a yearly meeting, the G8 Summit. Meetings are intended to foster consensus on global issues such as economic growth and crisis management, global security, energy, and terrorism. Because the G8 is limited in its membership and unable to force its members to comply with the summit's policies and objectives, some experts question its overall effectiveness.

 When the group was originally formed in 1975, it was known as the G6, with France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States participating. The original group was intended to provide major industrial powers of the noncommunist world a venue in which to address economic concerns, which at the time included inflation and the recession sparked by the oil crisis of the 1970s. Cold War politics also invariably entered the group's agenda soon after its founding.

 Currently, the G8 comprises its six charter members, in addition to Canada, which joined in 1976, and Russia, which became a formal member in 1998. The EU is a "non-enumerated" ninth member. Leaders from other countries are invited to the summit, but they are not participants. This has led to criticism of the G8 from some quarters as an outdated, U.S.dominated institution which fails to reflect the views or importance of vast economies like those of India, Brazil, China, and Mexico.

Is it an organization?
While there are no formal criteria for membership, member nations are generally expected to have highly-developed economies and be democracies. The G8, unlike the United Nations, is not an organization or institution, and there is no formal charter or secretariat.

Russia and the G8

Russia joined the group formally in 1998 after years of gradual involvement and steps toward democratization. With the Cold War over, several world leaders--particularly President Bill Clinton-encouraged Russia's inclusion. Experts say it was more of a gesture toward then President of Russia Boris Yeltsin than anything else, since Russia was neither a fully-realized economy nor a Western-style democracy. The G8 nations decided to let Russia have the presidency for the 2006 term.

The G8's Efficacy and Influence

Opinions vary on the G8's influence. The G8 issues numerous statements, makes various commitments, and draws attention to certain issues, but experts say that most of the group's achievements are on a small scale and made behind the scenes. Joseph Nye, professor of international relations at Harvard University, says the G8 "gets the bureaucracies to focus," and John Kirton, director of the University of Toronto's G8 Research Group (which analyzes each summit), notes that commitments and compliance have increased over the years. This increase, however, coincides with a decrease in the combined economic power of the G8 nations. In 1975, the G8 nations constituted 55 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP); by 2004, this figure had decreased to 44 percent.

Criticism of the G8
Criticism of the G8 extends well beyond Russia's questionable membership. Summits are often the target of anti-globalization protests. Some critics argue that the exclusivity of the group results in a focus on the needs of industrial rather than developing countries and that if actions are taken for the latter, they are inadequate. But Daniel Tarullo, a professor of law at Georgetown and President Clinton's former representative at several G8 summits, points out that the G8 wasn't intended to decide development policies. Another common criticism is the G8 is all talk and the summit just a photo-op, but, as noted above, the forum has allowed for leading nations to focus and aim for consensus on a variety of issues.

Expanding the G8..

China and India, up-and-coming economic powers, are notable omissions from the G8, and some say they should be included. As Haass argues, "the G8 needs to become the G10. Both China and India deserve a seat." Such additions, he says, would be beneficial for all. China's inclusion, of course, would clearly mean the end of the G8 as a forum for leading democracies. As Mark Medish writes in The Globalist in 2006, "If China were one day included, as some advocate in view of its enormous economic weight, then Russia would begin to look downright Western in political terms."

Indchina or chindia ?...

China and India do belong to the G-20, a forum of finance ministers and central bank governors created by the then-G7. The G-20 includes nineteen of the world's largest economies in addition to the European Union. The inaugural meeting of the G-20 took place in December 1999. Since then, G-20 meetings have taken place yearly.

The G-20 Finance Summit.

In November 2008, the heads of G-20 states met in Washington for the first time. The summit, dubbed Bretton Woods II by the media, was called to discuss the 2008 global financial crisis. According to the Brookings Institution, the G-20 Summit was a "European initiative, promoted by French President Sarkozy and U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown."

Consequent summit .G 20 .
The next G-20 Summit in London is scheduled for April 2009. In preparation for the G-20's second heads-ofstate meeting, the body created working groups to execute the summit's objectives. The G-20's action plan for reform created by the 2008 Washington summit pledged to implement the following: strengthening transparency and accountability; enhancing sound regulation; promoting integrity in financial markets; reinforcing international cooperation; and reforming the international financial institutions

G 15
The eighteen member states of the G15 are Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe.

WHY G 15
Established in 1989, the G15 hosts summits to address issues of great concern to developing countries, including trade, technology, and healthcare, as well as more overarching concerns like economics and security.

The G15s members include four subSaharan nations, six Latin American nations, three Middle Eastern nations, four Southeast Asian nations, and one Caribbean nation, and together they are broadly representative of most of the developing world.

AIM OF G 15
The G15 aims to address important issues that pertain to its membership and to provide international organizations like the United Nations and the Group of Eight (G8) with a unified message representative of developing nations.

Countering G15
As a counterpart to the G15, the G8 is composed of developed countries from North America, Europe, and East Asia.

The background factor of g-15

The G15 was born out of the NonAligned Movement, an international organization formed in 1955 whose members declared themselves neutral in the Cold War and declined to align with either the West or the Soviet Union. Mostly composed of developing nations, the goal of the Non-Alignment

 Movement is to safeguard the independence and sovereignty of nations that refused to align themselves with a more powerful nation. However, the group was characterized by disagreements and dysfunction since some members, like Cuba, took sides in the Cold War and other members, like India and Pakistan, engaged in open warfare.

The Group of Fifteen was established in 1989 at the ninth summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. It currently consists of eighteen members and is headed by Iran, which assumed its leadership in 2006. The G15 deals extensively with issues of development and trade, issues that it pushes aggressively to the worlds industrial nations.

 However, it also dedicates much of its time to discussing how to improve the standard of living in the developing world, either through the improvement of health care , education, or any variety of methods. Security concerns are also repeatedly raised by the G15s membership. For example, in the previous G15 summit (2006), the topics included the Millennium Development Goals, food security, gender inequality in education,AIDs, agricultural tariffs, and many others.

G 20
Currently, the group consists of 23 nations: Argentina / Bolivia/ Brazil/ Chile/ China/ Cuba/ Ecua dor /Egypt / Guatemala/ India / Indonesia /Mexico / Nigeria/ Pakistan/ Paraguay/ Peru/ Philippines/ South Africa / Tanzania/ Thailand/ Uruguay/ Venezuela / Zimbabwe

Establishment

Estd. In the year 1999 in the wake of Asian financial crisis to bring together major advanced and emerging economies to stabilize the global financial market.

MFN to G20
Since 2010on G-20 protectionism, the global tone shows little improvement. However the G-20, with its roster of advanced and emerging economies, is uniquely situated to arrest the eruption of protectionist measures, and revive the stalled agenda of the Doha Round. In this report we first describe the continued instances of G-20 protection and the commendable unwinding of some earlier measures. We then turn to policy responses and our recommendations.

Summits
To tackle the economic crisis that spread across the globe in 2008, the g 20 members were called upon to further strengthen international cooperation. Washington in 2008 London and Pittsburg in 2009 Toronto and Seoul in 2010.

2010 ..
country-led, consultative Mutual Assessment Process (MAP) Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies: Trade and Development Policies: Fiscal Policies: Financial Reforms: Structural Reforms: