International Goals

In July of 1989, Michael Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, sent a letter in which he announced the end of the Soviet Empire. He didn't address it to the United Nations or the World Bank, but rather to the heads of the Industrialized Group of 7, as they were called then, which was meeting in Paris.

Soon after, Russia received massive financial help and was eventually invited as a member of the club of the world's biggest economies, which with its inclusion became the G8 in 1997. The country's relatively peaceful road to free market capitalism and democracy was not the doing of the G7, but it could also not have been done without their support.

Global ideas

Approximately 18 years after Gorbachev's letter, Russia under President Vladimir Putin is a self-assured partner at the G8 table. This year's agenda deals with problems of world trade, questions about global energy security and climate change, the fight against HIV/AIDS and the debt relief of the poorest countries in the world.

George Bush, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair and the rest of the G8 club like to view the group as a small circle of confidants that can launch global initiatives. They leave implementation to groups like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund or the UN.

Critics say the G8 countries do very little. Since they control about two-thirds of the global national product, they must do more than make vague declarations of intent that never materialize, critics say. But the G7/G8 hasn't done as badly in coming to agreements during its 32-year history as its battered reputation might suggest.

The Houston Protocol

What today is known as the Kyoto Protocol could've as easily been called the Houston Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol was the UN convention limiting worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases, signed in 1997 in Japanese city of Kyoto. The politics leading up to the important agreement were already underway in 1990 at the G7 summit in Houston, Texas in the United States.

There, the US President George Bush Sr. agreed to negotiate climate change and look at the causes leading up to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The Rio agreement formed the basis for what later became the Kyoto Protocol.

John Kirton, the director of the G8 Research Group of the University of Toronto, said that the large success achieved at the Earth Summit would've been impossible without the US endorsement. Eventually, when the G8 countries agree to something, they follow through, although "sometimes it takes a long time," Kirton said.

Fighting world sickness

The fight against infectious diseases also seems to be making some headway at the G8. In 2002, The Global Fund was started with approximately $1.4 billion to fight against malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. About $900 million has already been invested in African projects, said Richard Feachem, who directs the fund.

The money comes from both governments and the private sector. Critics such as the organization Doctors Without Borders call the funds a "useless alibi" and advocate a relaxation of Western medical patents. The G8 researcher Kirton says that despite many inadequacies, the G8 group remains "the largest donations collector of our time."

But the system will work only as long as the G8 members maintain a working relationship with international organizations.

"The large international organizations don't believe in some of the G8 participants in contrast no more," said Kirton. "And that means they will not want to give away taxpayer money."

Filling the gaps

Sometimes the power of the G8 has nothing to do with money, but with the fact that it's the only forum that can address certain worldwide problems.

"One of the key themes for the emerging markets such as China and India are the private investments, transparent markets and stable currency exchange rates," said Kirton. "A world organization to address that doesn't exist."

In 1975, when France and Germany were invited for the first time to join, the world financial markets were neither stabile nor transparent. The world had been rocked by an increase in oil prices in 1973 and the fall of the dollar. This situation led to a need for radical reforms and the only option was to rely on the informal agreements hashed out by the leaders of the world's biggest economies.

It still works that way, although no one is really happy about it. The German chancellor Angela Merkel has made it clear she hopes the G8 will also work on issues that will create stable financial markets, noting that there was a lot of room for improvement in that area.