Student n: 20110347 IRD Promotion 2011/2012

Paper examination
Tacking the G 7/8, G20 as examples analyze the role of summit diplomacy in world politics and the issues it poses to our understanding of contemporary diplomacy?
(Words: 1989)

In the framework of the course: Diplomacy today: theory and practice Professor: Brian Hockings

European Union International and Diplomatic Studies Department

November, 16th 2011

It is not easy to see, how matters could be worsened by a parley at the summit1 . This sentence pronounced by Winston Churchill during a speech in Edinburg in February 1950, refers for the first time to the word summit to characterize an international meeting at Head of States level. Even though summits existed before, an example would be the Concert of Europe in the XIXst century; their number and frequency have grown on a large scale during the XXst and XXIst centuries, so that today summits are giving rhythm into international politics. This paper will rest on the G7/8, G20 summits as illustrative case studies to analyze the practice of summit diplomacy. We will ask ourselves: What is the purpose of summit diplomacy? To what extent does it contribute to global governance, and what is its impact on the exercise of diplomacy in contemporary world politics? In the first place we will argue that the G 7/8, G 20 serial summits operate much as a rudder for the management of global issues. Then, we will see that, by introducing politicians on the international scene, summit diplomacy redefines the relation between diplomats and Heads of States. It also changes the practice of diplomacy, as summit diplomacy can be understood as multilateral diplomacy of a special kind2.

I.

The G 7/8, G 20: a directoire of world politics

- Changes and continuities in world politics In 1992, Marie Claude Smouts and Bertrand Badie publish a book, the title of which, Le retournement du monde, sociologie de la scne internationale, is illustrative of the dramatic changes that take place on the international scene. Nations-States are going through a crisis of authority and identity 3, as a result of globalization and the progressive emergence of a world society. The phenomenon of globalization, which shapes contemporary international relations, modifies the role and prerogatives of States. Globalization, the widening, deepening, and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness4, questions the constitutive principles of States: territoriality, sovereignty and autonomy5. As Joseph Nye and Robert Keohane6 stress it, States have become interdependent. The 2008 financial and economic crisis, where the sub-prime credit collapse in the USA had worldwide repercussions, demonstrates it. In addition, power in global politics has become more disseminated. Non-states actors of all kinds exert increasing responsibilities on the international scene. Actors like NGOs, multinational firms, networks, banks, and charismatic individuals such as former presidents, powerful businessmen or celebrities are active participants to global politics and economics. They interact with and act along States, accounting for the emergence of a global civil society. These changes on the international arena should not overlook elements of continuity. Indeed, the economic globalization has not being followed at the same pace by a political globalization. States remain the principal agency in the international political system. Even though several subjects dealt with by States have been globalized, they remain the legitimate and primary actors in international relations. As a matter of facts, there is a discrepancy between new parameters: the economic globalization and old parameters: an international system based on the authority of nations States. These tensions between changes and continuities raise new issues for governance and the exercise of diplomacy. - Purposes and objectives of the G7/8, G20 in world politics The G7, created in the context of the oil crisis of the 1970s, aims at answering to global governance concerns. According to Nicholas Bayne, the G7, launched at the initiative of the French president Valery Giscard dEstaing, had primarily three objectives: reconciling domestic and international pressures, exerting effective political leadership through meetings between Heads of States and managing collectively issues of shared concern or interest. Over time, with the agenda of the G7 and then G8 being broaden with the inclusion of
1 2 3 4 5 6

D, Reynolds, Summits: Six Meetings that Shaped the Twentieth Century, New-York, Perseus Books Groups, 2007, p. 1. G. R., Berridge, Diplomacy, theory and practice, Houndmills, Palgrave Mc Millan, 2010, 4th dition, p 161.

B, Badie & M.C., Smouts, Le retournement du monde : sociologie de la scne Internationale Paris, Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques & Dalloz, 1992, p. 11. A. McGrew, Globalization and global politics in Baylis, Smith & Owens (eds.) The globalization of world politics : a introduction to international relations Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 16. A, Mc Grew, Ibid. p. 23. Nye, J & Keohane, R., Power and Interdependence revisited , International Organization, Vol. XLI, n 4., 1987, pp. 725-753.

political issues, integrating politics and economics appeared as a fourth objective 7. Even though these objectives have been unevenly fulfilled, they demonstrate that the G7/8 summits have the ambition to orient the world governance. In the global governance complex, Anthony Mc Grew8 characterizes the G8 and G20 as informal clubs contributing to global governance. It is difficult to assess exactly the extent to which does the G8 act as a global regulator or a directoire of world politics. To be sure, these serial informal meetings at the highest level have fostered the emergence of shared meanings and a collective identity among Heads of States. They can discuss and ultimately decide on global economic and political issues. Obviously enough, a collective decision taken by a club of the wealthiest nations will have a broad repercussion on third countries as well. Thus, we can advance that the G8 acts as a rudder of global governance, as it can put certain issues on the agenda of the most powerful nations of the international system. For example, poverty reduction in Africa was pushed through the agenda by Great Britain as the host country in the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles. The announcement in the Pittsburg summit in 2009 of the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation will bring more legitimacy to the summit, bringing established and emerging nations together. At the same time, this will change the practice of the G7/8 as an exclusive club, which was based on a restricted number of like-minded participants. II. The impact of the G 7/8 and G20 on contemporary diplomacy

- The diplomat and the politician The entanglement of domestic and international issues: the impact of the international on the domestic and the internationalization of domestic issues, resulted in the irruption of political leaders on the international scene and hence, changed the character of contemporary diplomacy. Diplomacys core issues, representation, the construction and sustainment of an identity to the self and the others, and communication, the exchange of information and conveyance of messages on a range of issues are exerted differently9. By summit meetings, Heads of States assume that they will solve problems that cannot be dealt with at a lower level or were blocked in bureaucratic layers. Therefore, summits are expected to ease both communication and representation by direct meetings of Heads of States. Ultimately, these ones should constitute a club having a shared understanding of global issues and attention to each other concerns and interests. They should also develop a sort feeling of being part to a community with a distinct collective identity. Pigman speaks of an opportunity to create an Habermasian lifeworld10. In this regard, the joint press conference given by the president of the United-States Obama and the French president Sarkozy is illustrative. Both presidents spent more time in stressing the solidity of their personal friendship and their commitment to working together than in evocating the outcomes of the G20 Cannes summit11. Unlike diplomats, politicians are not experts in negotiations, communication and representation. Thus, misunderstandings and lack of professionalism can happen. In addition, politicians are accountable to their domestic constituencies. Therefore, during the summits they spend as much time speaking to the national press as they spend negotiating with their counterparts. They are also carrying out the negotiations with electoral considerations in mind, which may lead them to be less prone to make concessions than diplomats and being more interested by national interests rather than by the collective management of world politics. Nonetheless, if summit diplomacy accounts for the irruption of national leaders in international affaires, playing the role of diplomats, it does not seem that the latter will have less responsibilities. On the contrary, summit diplomacy redefines their relation to Heads of States and the exercise of diplomacy. - Summit diplomacy as a supplement to ordinary diplomatic procedure G 7/8, G20 can be observed as a temps fort in international politics. Anticipations and follow-ups of these meetings require intense preparatory and implementation works by the sherpas and working groups.
7

N. Bayne, Staying together : The G8 summit confronts the 21st Century, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2005, p. 231. N, Bayne, Ibid., p.26.

8 9

G.A., Pigman & J. Kotsopoulos, Do this one for me, Georges: Blair, Brown, Bono, Bush and the Actor-ness of the G8 , The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, Vol. II, n 22007, p. 128.
10 11

Pigman & Kotsopoulos, Ibid. p. 133.

Sommet de Cannes : point de presse conjoint N. Sarkozy et B. Obama , Elyse Prsidence de la Rpublique Franaise, 4 November 2011, retrieved 13 November 2011 : http://www.elysee.fr/president/mediatheque/videos/2011/novembre/sommet-de-cannes-point-de-presseconjoint-de-n.12362.html?search=&xtmc=&xcr=&offset=0&context=null

Summits take place within a stream of international events, and diplomatic strategies adapt to this new state of facts. As summarized by a European diplomat: You cannot understand the summits without taking into account all the other ongoing international meetings. When we set out to influence another government () we say, Well start off at the OECD () in May, follow up at the summit, and then again at the IMF in September12. Therefore, it seems that the role of contemporary diplomats is to bridge all these events of the international life in an effective and coherent foreign policy, or at least external action. In addition, given the changing pattern of world politics, national diplomats have to make a link between summit participants and those who are outside the summits: third countries and representatives of the international civil society. Alternative summits have been established in parallel to G7/8, G20 summits discussing alternative agendas and they are very often critical of the decisions taken during the official summits. The organization of B20 and L20 summits13, respectively for Business and Labour organizations during the last G20 summit in Cannes, and the setting of common meetings with the G20 leaders seems to go in the direction of the integration of other actors. Insofar as the ambitions of the new format G20 summit is to be a primary forum for global governance, it should bring around the table representative actors of the balance of powers on the international scene, and thus involve non States actors in its decision making process. In conclusion, serial summits such as the G7/8, G20 summits came to play the role of major events structuring international relations, since, by the nature of its participants, G7/8 and G20 summits have repercussions on third countries and non State actors as well. By developing their own agenda, summits have put some issues at the forefront of international concerns. According to Pigman, the G 7/8 has become more than a venue for diplomacy, but a diplomatic actor in its own right14. Alongside their role in world politics, summits contribute to educate national leaders to the complexity of international politics. Italian diplomats have said that summits have the capacity to sprovincializzare (deprovincialize)15 Heads of States, making them increasingly aware of issues of global concerns. In this context, it seems that the role of contemporary diplomacy is to integrate smoothly these summits into the web of international meetings and issues so that to ensure a certain continuity between an increasing number of multilateral events and an effective global governance.

12 13 14 15

N. Bayne & R.D., Putnam, Hanging together: Cooperation and conflict in the seven-powers Summits, London, Sage Publications Ldt., 1987, 2nd edition, p. 13. Dclaration commune B20-L20 , Prsidence franaise du G20, 4 November 2011, retrieved 15 November 2011, http://www.g20g8.com/g8-g20/g20/francais/les-priorites-de-la-france/les-evenements-paralleles/b20/le-sommet-business-20.1487.htmlv G.A. Pigman, op. cit., p. 1. Bayne & Putnam, op. cit., p. 257.

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