Round table: Canada's Kananaskis G8 summit: What can and should be done?

June 26–28, 2002, Canada will be hosting, for its fourth time, the annual Summit of the Group of Seven and now Eight major market democracies ‐ France, the United States, Britain, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, and Russia, with the European Union. This year there is much more skepticism and uncertainty than usual about what the G7 and G8 Summit can and should do. It is thus important to address several fundamental questions about G7/8 Summitry: Of what value has the G7/8 Summit been in recent years? How best can one measure its success? How does its recent performance compare with that since its inception in 1975? What makes a Summit successful? What are the key causes of effective G7/8 performance? How well has the G7/8 moved to meaningfully involve outside countries, international organizations, and civil society organizations in its Summit in recent years? What further innovations are needed? To answer these questions, this Roundtable has assembled several veteran observers and practitioners of the G7/G8. Robert Fauver, of Fauver Associates in the United States, Sir Nicholas Bayne, of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Dr. Gordon Smith, Senior Fellow at the Liu Centre at the University of British Columbia on Canada's Pacific coast. And Professor Gerald Helleiner, of the University of Toronto's Munk Center for International Studies.