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L ate this month Canada will host and co-hostrespectively the G8 and G20 summits of worldleaders. The G8 Summit will focus on political and

development issues, including ways to improve maternaland child health care in developing countries, which thePrime Minister has made a summit priority. Maternal andchild health are central to the Millennium DevelopmentGoals established by the United Nations as benchmarksfor the world to achieve by 2015. Of the eight goals,maternal health is the one showing the least progress.However, the issue has become mired in controversy overthe Conservative government’s refusal to include abor-tion funding in the summit’s maternal health plan — adecision that has riled many aid groups and some oppo-sition MPs.

Of these two summits, the G20 is clearly the moreimportant. The economic and financial crisis of 2008-09shook the global economy to its very foundations and weare still living with its aftershocks. To address the initial cri-sis, the outgoing American president, George W. Bush, con-vened a meeting of the leaders of the world’s most powerfuleconomies in Washington in November 2008. This was fol-lowed by further summits in London (April 2009) andPittsburgh (September 2009).

The G20, first convened as a club of finance ministers,has evolved into an important forum for world leaders tomeet and to discuss and address a wide range of pressingnew economic challenges. Four key issues will dominate theG20 Summit agenda in Toronto: l. Promoting economic recovery and growth at a time

when there are serious current-account imbalancesbetween surplus and deficit countries, and budgetary

deficits in many countries are growing worse, com-pounded by political instability and uncertainty.

2. Banking and other financial regulatory reforms with afocus on how to enhance stability and prevent futuredestabilizing “excesses.” (Whereas some countries arepromoting a large-institutions special tax as a key fea-ture of proposed reforms, other countries, like Canada,wish to focus on regulatory and risk-based changes orenhancements, such as capital reserve requirements.)

3. Restoring confidence in the international trade regimeby recharging “standstill agreements” to avoid furtherprotectionism and spurring the completion of thestalled Doha Round on trade.

4. Addressing the challenges of developing a productivenegotiating approach to the problems of climatechange in the aftermath of the Copenhagen confer-ence, which was widely seen as a failure in terms ofboth process and outcomes.

N one of these issues is easy and all are proving to becontentious as countries struggle with the continuing

political and economic fallout of a global financial and eco-nomic crisis that refuses to go away.

It is useful to step back and ask some broader questionsabout the purpose of these gatherings, the perils that con-front world leaders when they get together and the specialchallenges that host countries, in this case Canada, confrontin organizing these meetings.

Summits are catalysts for action but not places to make newrules. One of the myths about summits, whether they are ofthe G8 or G20 variety, is that these are gatherings whereworld leaders make new rules. This myth has been perpetuat-

THE PERILS OF SUMMITRY Fen Osler Hampson

Of the two summits — G8 and G20 — that Canada will host and co-hostrespectively, in June 2010, the G20 meeting is the more important. In the context ofthe two summit agendas, this essay explores some of the broader lessons (and perils)of summitry. It argues that the success of these meetings will depend greatly on theleadership role played by Canada as summit chair, and our skill in navigating thedangerous waters of summitry.

Des deux sommets du G8 et du G20 de juin, dont le premier sera présidé et lesecond coprésidé par le Canada, c’est celui du G20 qui a le plus d’importance. Àl’examen de l’ordre du jour des deux rencontres, l’auteur tire certaines leçonsgénérales sur les avantages (et les écueils) du recours aux sommets, ajoutant que laréussite de ces deux-ci dépendra essentiellement du leadership du Canada et de sonhabileté à naviguer en eaux troubles.

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ed by many critics of globalization,especially those on the extreme left,who see something akin to a globalconspiracy when leaders get together.But the media are also culpable in hyp-ing the importance of these gatheringsin order to make them newsworthy. Inreality, summits are largely talkfests orforums for the exchange of views andinformation among world leaders. Butwhen properly organized they can

accomplish a lot more. Through dis-cussion and personal interactions lead-ers can strengthen the incentives forcooperation and mutual understand-ing. Summits also provide a criticalopportunity for leaders to use theirpolitical position and influence to breakdeadlocks and logjams at the bureau-cratic and international institutionallevels. The purpose of summits, in thewords of the distinguished formerBritish diplomat Nicholas Bayne, is to“concentrate the mind,” “resolve differ-ences” and have a “catalytic effect” oninternational cooperation.

O ne of the key chal-lenges for the G20

Summit in Toronto, espe-cially when it comes to thetricky issues of banking andfinance, will be to focus on developingkey principles for new legislation, reg-ulation and reform while recognizingthat one size or approach does not fitall. The development of such princi-ples will be critical in guiding andshaping the work of legislators andregulators like the Financial StabilityBoard (FSB). G20 leaders also have animportant role to play in putting pres-sure on the FSB and other regulatorybodies tasked with reform to ensurethat agreements are reached and thatthey are properly implemented andmonitored. Accepted principles arecrucial to developing a coordinated

and effective approach that will pre-vent regulatory arbitrage and otherkinds of dysfunctional behaviour onthe part of financial institutions.

Keep a tightly focused agenda.Today’s summits are ambitious, elabo-rate and highly scripted affairs. Thesummit apparatus and membershiphas expanded greatly, as we are alreadyseeing with the establishment of theG20 and the fact that it is now normal

practice to invite nonmember coun-tries to participate in these gatherings.The G20 Summit in Toronto will be noexception. Summits are preceded byextensive meetings not just of sherpas,but also of key ministerial groupings towhom much of the responsibility fordeveloping agendas and fostering poli-cy innovation on specific issues hasdevolved. The run-up to both the G8and G20 summits this year has beenpreceded by whole series of separatemeetings of ministers of finance, for-eign affairs, energy, environment,

development and so on. There havealso been many meetings of variouscivil society and business leaders inanticipation of these summits, andmore will follow.

W ith so many actors, institutionsand interests involved in the

preparation of summit agendas, thereis a natural temptation to expand theagenda and, in the words of one wag,to “over-decorate the summitChristmas tree.” A successful summitprocess is one that focuses leaders’attention and discussion on just a cou-ple of critical issues rather than dilut-

ing it with a long list of declarationsand initiatives scripted by well inten-tioned bureaucrats who want to dressup official communiqués for their ownpurposes. The challenge for G20 lead-ers in Toronto will be to stay focusedon key economic and financial issuesand to avoid introducing other extra-neous issues of a political nature thatdivert attention, expose differences ofopinion or outlook, or simply clutter

an already crowded agenda.Maintain policy cohe-

sion and unity of purpose.Related to the need to keepagendas tightly focused isthe importance of main-taining policy cohesion

and unity of purpose, especiallyamong key countries that are partici-pating in the summit. Within theG20, this presents an enormous chal-lenge, especially in the face ofmounting differences over regulatoryframeworks for financial institutions,banking reform, taxation, exit strate-gies to unwind the massive stimulusmeasures many countries recentlyintroduced, currency reform and howto deal with the costs of climatechange. The sense of crisis and desirefor concerted global action has reced-

ed in some countries, while newcrises (and new divisions) haveemerged elsewhere, notably in theEuropean Union (EU), which iswrestling with the continued falloutof the financial and economic melt-down in Greece that risks spreadingto other euro zone members. Thenearly $1-trillion rescue package,announced by the EU and theInternational Monetary Fund afterthe precipitous decline of global mar-kets in early May, is the equivalent ofWashington’s $700-billion bailout ofWall Street in October 2008. As theincentives for cooperation weaken, it

Fen Osler Hampson

Summits are largely talkfests or forums for the exchange ofviews and information among world leaders. But whenproperly organized they can accomplish a lot more. Throughdiscussion and personal interactions leaders can strengthenthe incentives for cooperation and mutual understanding.

The challenge for G20 leaders in Toronto will be to stayfocused on key economic and financial issues and to avoidintroducing other extraneous issues of a political nature thatdivert attention, expose differences of opinion or outlook, orsimply clutter an already crowded agenda.

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will require clear and consistent lead-ership to move ahead.

T he history of the G8 is instructivein this regard. When the first sum-

mit of world leaders took place inRambouillet, France, in November1975, it was a summit of six — France,Britain, US, Japan and Germany withItaly added at the last minute — thatdealt with a narrow range of economicconcerns. The summit was convened atthe initiative of French President ValéryGiscard d’Estaing to break the deadlockbetween the United States and Europeand Japan over reform of the interna-tional monetary system. The summitalso discussed international trade issuesand generated a political commitmentto resist protectionism and completethe Tokyo Round of trade talks.

The Rambouillet summit, knownas “the walk in the woods,” and thosethat immediately succeeded it hadthree core objectives: (1) to generatepolitical leadership to resolve pressingeconomic problems that could not beaddressed at the national bureaucraticlevel; (2) to reconcile the growing ten-sions of globalization, which were cre-ating frictions at the boundaries ofdomestic policy and the external envi-ronment; and (3) to develop a systemof collective management of the inter-national system, recognizing that theUnited States no longer had the capac-ity or policy reach to deal with a widerange of global challenges.

These objectives are just as rele-vant today to the enlarged forum ofthe G20 as they were more than 30years ago. The existing machinery of

formal international institutions isnot well equipped to deal with manyof the new and emerging global eco-nomic issues where new solutions arerequired, and it needs reform itself.Political leadership is needed on press-ing global economic and financialissues within this enlarged forum ofworld leaders because there are a widerange of problems that cannot bedealt with at the bureaucratic ornational level.

Anticipate the unexpected. Summitsare sometimes diverted at the 11th hourby a crisis or a sudden turn of events,which throws months of planning offcourse and diverts leaders’ attentions.The 2005 Gleneagles summit of G8 lead-ers was overshadowed by terrorist bomb-ing attacks in London, which occurredearly in the morning of the second day

The perils of summitry

Prime Minister Stephen Harper takes questions from students on Parliament Hill in May at the G8/G20 Youth Summit, one of the pre-liminary events on the Canadian summit calendar. Fen Hampson writes that for all the preparation that goes into a summit, Harper

should expect the unexpected.

Jason Ransom, PMO

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of the meeting, forcing the summit’schair, British Prime Minister Tony Blair,to return to London to deal with the cri-sis. The 2008 Hokkaido Toyako summitin Japan took place against a backdrop ofrapidly rising oil prices and the loomingspectre of a global recession. When Italyhosted G8 leaders in 2009, the summitwas initially supposed to take place inthe Sardinian seaside city of LaMaddalena. But it was moved at the last

minute to L’Aquila in Abruzzo provinceby the summit’s host, Prime MinisterSilvio Berlusconi, in an effort to redistrib-ute disaster funds after a devastatingearthquake had levelled much of thecity, leaving many of its victims home-less. The shift in venue created a logis-tical nightmare and the ensuing politicalcircus diverted much of the media’s andpublic’s attention from the actual meet-ing itself.

T hose organizing summits of worldleaders have to anticipate the

unexpected. Or to quote DonaldRumsfeld, former secretary of defencein the Bush administration, “There areknown knowns; there are things weknow. We know there are knownunknowns; that is to say we knowthere are some things we do not know.But there are also unknown unknowns— the ones we don’t know.” Goodsummit planning anticipates the risksand uncertainties associated with allthree of these unexpected elements.

Ensure that there is proper follow-upand follow-through. The recent historyof G8 summitry has been largely oneof unfulfilled promises and commit-ments. As John Kirton, a careful aca-demic scrutinizer of summits, hasnoted, the degree of follow-through onsummit declarations and commit-

ments over the years is patchy and theoverall track record of generating “col-lective commitments” that are bothhonoured and implemented is not par-ticularly stellar. However, there areexceptions: the 2000 Okinawa summitin Japan is a remarkable success storyof collective G8 action. During themonths that followed that summit, G8countries took action on virtually all oftheir total negotiated commitments.

Compliance was especially high in theareas of health (notably infectious dis-ease), information technology andtrade. Some of this is explained by thefact that key lead countries (Canada,France, Germany and the US) adoptedspecific issues and took responsibilityfor moving the policy agenda forwardon them. In the past two decades,however, G8 compliance has weak-ened as summit agendas have becomeovercrowded, although thematic agen-da items — such as development assis-tance for Africa, which was a priorityat the 2002 Kananaskis summit andagain at Evian in 2003 and Gleneaglesin 2005, has witnessed delivery onsome important issues while also see-ing the emergence of an importantsynergistic relationship among somespecific economic, political and socialagendas.

A t the Pittsburgh summit inNovember 2009, G20 leaders

made a series of critical decisions andalso put forward an ambitious coopera-tive agenda that was contained in theirFramework for Strong, Sustainable, andBalanced Growth. In that compact,G20 leaders set out a series of medium-term policy objectives and a coopera-tive process of mutual assessment ofthese policy frameworks. At the June

summit, G20 leaders will have todemonstrate that they are delivering ontheir earlier commitments. Not onlydoes the credibility of the summitprocess depend on the delivery of thesecommitments, but the public will belooking for coordinated action andearly, specific and beneficial results.There is always a temptation, as thesometimes sorry history of the G8attests, for leaders to wiggle out of their

previous commitments andprevious lofty declarationsby developing new and evermore ambitious agendasand building up expecta-tions by promising evenmore. For the Torontomeeting, however, “less ismore” and the entire credi-bility of the G20 Summit

process will hinge on its ability to pro-duce some early wins that demonstratethat international cooperation in thisnew forum is working and producingconcrete results.

Ensure a smooth handoff. Canadais the co-host with Korea of theToronto summit in June. This summitwill be followed in November byanother summit of the 20 in Seoul. Itis critical for Canada and Korea to workclosely together to ensure that summitagendas are complementary and mutu-ally reinforcing, and, above all, thatthere is continued momentum fromone summit to the next. Fortunately,Canada and Korea enjoy close andstrong political and diplomatic rela-tions and have been working closelytogether. These ties will be crucial toensuring the continued and future suc-cess of the G20.

The year 2010 will be make-or-break for the G20 and a critical year forglobal economic recovery. Canada hasa key role to play as host of the G8/G20summits. It will have to navigate theshoals of summitry especially carefully.

Fen Osler Hampson is Chancellor’sProfessor and director of the NormanPaterson School of International Affairsat Carleton University, and co-convenerof the Canada-Korea G20 Seminars.

Fen Osler Hampson

This summit will followed in November by another summit ofthe 20 in Seoul. It is critical for Canada and Korea to work closelytogether to ensure that summit agendas are complementary andmutually reinforcing and, above all, that there is continuedmomentum from one summit to the next. Fortunately, Canadaand Korea enjoy close and strong political and diplomaticrelations and have been working closely together.