The
G8 is an economic and political organization designed to bring about
discussion and effect change among the world's most powerful nations.
The G8, which stands for Group of Eight, includes Canada, France,
Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United States, and the United
Kingdom. Although the leaders of these countries keep in touch to
varying degrees anyway, they meet as the G8 once a year in order to
discuss the state of world economics and politics.
The
group has a nominal presidency, and the holder of that office is
different every year, with the post rotating throughout the membership,
so that the leader of one country is also the G8 president for a year.
The G8 has no headquarters, budget, or permanent staff. The country that
holds the presidency is the host country for the G8 summit of that year
and has the responsibility for paying for all costs associated with it.
In recent years, security has required a hefty price tag.
The
summit usually takes place in the middle of the calendar year, and it
consists of three days of sometimes intense, very high-level talks
between all eight leaders. Meetings between lower-level officials take
place at various times leading up to the high-level summit. Topics of
discussion at G8 summits have historically included controversial
issues, such as global warming, Third World debt, Middle East peace,
economic policy and conversation, andterrorism. Protests of one or more
countries' policies usually accompany the summits. Sometimes, these
protests get more coverage than the summits themselves.
Economic
policy and conversation is at the root of the G8. The mid-1970s oil
crisis shook the economics of the world's largest countries, and at the
urging of then-French President Valery Giscard D'Estaing, the leaders of
all the current members of the G8, except Canada and Russia, met to
discuss how to respond to the oil crisis. This was in 1975, and the
group's original name was the Library Group. It was soon changed to G6.
Canada
joined the group the very next year, making it the G7. Russia joined in
1991, after the fall of communism in that country. The fall of
communism in Germany also meant that the official delegation from that
country was all-inclusive, not just representing West Germany, as had
been the case when the Library Group first convened.
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