Toward a New Legitimacy of the G8 Shadow G-8, Politique étrangère, No. 2, Spring 2003

The significant destabilization of relations that occurred among leading G-8 countries in light of the war in Iraq dramatically underscored the need for the G-8 to adopt a coordinated strategy to revive economic growth. The author argues that all major countries must adopt specific new policy measures geared toward solving their individual economic problems. The G-8 should also address a number of other issues including the international water problem, development in Africa and other poverty-stricken parts of the world, global governance and the legitimacy of the G-8 itself. One of the most urgent issues is to provide renewed political impetus to the Doha Round of international trade negotiations, which is in desperate need of help. The G-8 must once again take a decisive stand in this area, specifically by agreeing to reduce their levels of support for agriculture and to redirect their remaining subsidies in this sector away from trade-distorting price supports toward income supports. Implementation of such a program would enable the G-8 to regain its effective, credible and legitimate leadership of the world economy.

The Shadow G8 met at Ifri in January 2003 in order to prepare the Evian summit.

The Shadow G8 members are: C. Fred BERGSTEN (Institute for International Economics, Washington), Leon BRITTAN (UBS Warburg, New York), John CHIPMAN (International Institute for Strategic Studies, London), Richard N. COOPER (Harvard University, Cambridge), Wendy DOBSON (Institute for International Business, Monterrey, and University of Toronto), Bill EMMOTT (The Economist), Boris FEDOROV (former Russian Finance Minister), David FOLKERTS-LANDAU (Deutsche Bank, Berlin), Yoichi FUNABASHI (Asahi Shimbun, Berlin), Paolo GUERRIERI (Istituto Affari Internazionali, Rome), Toyoo GYOHTEN (Institute for International Monetary Affairs, Tokyo), Karl KAISER (German Council on Foreign Relations, Berlin), Serguei KARAGANOV (Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Moscow), Henry A. KISSINGER (former U.S. State Secretary), Barbara McDOUGALL (Canadian Institute of International Affairs, Toronto), Patrick MESSERLIN (World Economy Group of the Institut d’études politiques, Paris), Thierry de MONTBRIAL (French Institute of International Relations, Paris), Joseph NYE Jr. (Harvard University, Cambridge), Richard PORTES (Centre for Economic Policy Research, London), Renato RUGGIERO (former Italian Foreign Affairs Minister) and Paul VOLCKER (former President of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board).