Over the past few lessons, what we've been doing is talking about the concept of economic global governance, talking about the global economy, talking about the various institutions in the global economy, as well as talking about some of the very key issues and elements and real development problems that really concern themselves with the global economy, things that the global economy are concerned in. This lesson is going to continue talking about the various different institutions of the global economy, talking previously about the financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF, as well as the trade institutions like, for example, the World Trade Organization. This lesson is going to focus on the G7, or the Group of Seven.
It all forms part of the economic global governance part of the NXL specification, talking about the various different institutions of the... global economy, the WTO, G7, G8 and G20. We also have to then therefore think about the role and significance of these institutions including their strengths and weaknesses.
As mentioned previously we have already focused on the financial institutions, the International Monetary Fund on the one hand as well as the World Bank on the other and now we're talking about trade organizations such as the WTO and now we're thinking about collections of states if you will. collections of states which represent a certain proportion of the global economy. That's what the G7 slash G8 and or the G20 actually do.
So as I've said and as I've mentioned, the previous lesson looked at the World Trade Organization. This lesson is talking about the impact and development as well as its importance in relation to the Group of Seven, the G7. So what is the Group of Seven?
That is the first question that we have to ask. Fundamentally, The Group of Seven is the seven largest economies in the world. Now I would like to caveat this straight away because we will get to a point in the future in this lesson where we mention the fact that China is actually not a member of the Group of Seven, the G7.
We'll explain why as we go along, but if we were to truly have the seven largest economies in the world, the Group of Seven would firstly... change at various different stages depending on economic development and economic collapse of various states and it would also probably or most definitely in fact include China but it doesn't. So the G7 is at least caveated the seven largest economies in the world. These include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
In addition to this we have what are known as non-enumerated members. The main non-enumerated member is the European Union which is a very important member of the European Union. which acts sort of like a non-listed member of the G7. Given the fact as well that the European Union is represented quite significantly with a number of these states, or at least definitely was significantly represented even more previously to Brexit, it makes sense that the European Union has an impact or is suggested to be a non-enumerated member of this particular organisation.
Remember back to prior to Brexit and... the European Union was made up of a number of different states which included the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Italy. So for the most part more than half of the members of the G7 were originally members of the European Union. A point that needs to be mentioned and a point that I want to get through at the beginning of this lesson is the fact that the specification makes reference to the G7 slash G8.
The reason for this particular thing. The reason for the fact that we had a G8 and now only have a G7 is because of the suspension of the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation was originally a member of this group. It was originally the G8.
It was eight member economies. However, they were expelled from the group in 2014 as a result of their illegal annexation of Crimea from the state of Ukraine. And it seems to be the case that they are no closer to becoming back.
and joining the original G8 group since their 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the continuing conflict therein. At the time of recording this lesson in April 2024, this conflict is still ongoing and looks to probably still be ongoing for a number of months, potentially even years to come. So Russia's relationship with the rest of the Western world has essentially collapsed more and more and more as they have become more expansionist and more imperialistic in their aims. They were very much so imperialistic prior to 2014. Nobody can deny their annexation of South Ossetia, for example, in the state of Georgia.
We can also see that they were involved quite significantly in conflicts in Chechnya, as well as in Transnistria and all of these different regions as well. But it is Ukraine that really was the straw that broke the camel's back for the original G8. It was Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014 following the Euromaidan protests, the ousting of Viktor Yanukovych and all of these different things going on in Ukraine. And so at the moment there is no indication of a returning of the Federation to the group since this invasion.
Getting back then to the G7, the original 7, the way in which it works is through, for the most part, a number of significant meetings. The G7 will meet on an annual basis at summit meetings. These meetings will involve discussions about the key and important issues within the broader... structure of global governance, specifically and almost exclusively when we're talking about social and economic governance. There'll be discussions pertaining to economic governance, specifically the way in which the world economy is operating, the way in which the institutions are relating to each other, and the role that each of these states play in the continuation and the upholding of various different elements and substrates of the economic system.
Issues in broader international relations. Of course, international relations concerns itself with economic problems as well. If there are states that are not getting on, essentially, this could have economic impacts, of course.
As well as this, the environment has a significant economic element attached to it. There is an intense linkage between economy and the environment and sustainability and the development of the environment, as well as things like human rights and other things that relate to those as well. At the end of these meetings that take place on an annual basis, there will be the publishing of statements of intent about what their future policies are intending to be.
The meetings themselves have no binding authority, nor do the statements of intent, and they do not represent, for example, international law. They do not represent anything that has any kind of binding authority on the global scale. They do, however, aim to promote global and economic issues such as the secession of poverty, the reduction of poverty, shall I say, third world debt, disease and famine, as well as the pressing issue of climate change and ongoing armed conflicts which have issues that relate to the economy and other global issues.
If we were to assess the G7, to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the G7, we can see that there are a number of different achievements that the G7 have set out to be able to conclude. In 2005, for example, there was an agreement between the members of the G7, the G8 at the time, If you're writing an essay on this, you could write just G7 or like I have done here, like brackets the G8, or just write G7 slash G8, given the fact that before 2014 it was the G8 and now it's the G7. It doesn't really matter so long as the examiners know what you are talking about. They are very clearly indicating, you're clearly indicating, should I say, that you are talking about this particular thing, the group of seven, and you're not talking about, for example, the WTO or the G20. In 2005 then, the G7 slash G8 had an agreement among their members to forgive over $40 billion in third world debt.
This was a particularly important milestone, and in fact one that was being argued for for a very long time. Things like Live Aid and Band Aid were all things that had been essentially protests to ensure that the G7 and the G8 actually try and forgive a lot of third world debt. And that was something that the G7 was really interested in. and to aim to try and reduce poverty by a certain year.
This is the debt, the third world debt by the way, is the debt that is owed by the 18 poorest economies in the world. There is very little chance that the amount of debt that is incurred would actually ever be paid off by these developing countries, and it seems to be the case that it would be better for everybody if the G7 slash G8 were to forgive a significant proportion of this third world debt to ensure that there is the proper and effective... economic development in those particular states in the global south. There are, however, third world approaches to the G7 which heavily critique their influence and their perpetuation of the North-South divide. Moreover, in addition to this, you have the Trump administration who were far less cooperative when it came to their relationship with the number of the other members of the G7.
The US's America First policy, for example, led to a lot of disagreements, specifically also about relating to tariffs with China and trade wars against China between the US and China. as well as this, there were intense disagreements on the part of the Trump administration about readmitting Russia into the group. This is just part of the general Trumpist antagonism that existed during his administration, and that would continue if he were to be elected later on this year. Essentially, and simply put, the US and their foreign policy under the Trump administration were far less cooperative than any other administration prior, or at least any other administration. if we were to judge in the 21st century, with the notable argument that could be made about the Bush administration.
There is also, like I said, the critique of China not being a member. How could we suggest that this is the G7, the group of seven, the seven largest economies in the world, if China, the second largest economy, is not a member? Well, there is something of a caveat that is placed on an assessment of the G7.
Not only do you have to be the largest... one of the seven largest economies in the world but there has to be more of an indication in relation to indicators of economic prosperity. Firstly China has quite a low nominal GDP in addition to the fact that they are an illiberal state government so they are a dictatorship that have quite low nominal GDP so it is suggested as a result of that that the G7 would not be a member, China should I say, would not be a member that was fit for the G7. owing to the fact that in order to be a member of the G7, you also have to have a number of different governmental structures as well.
You have to be a democracy, you have to be a basically liberal democracy that ensures the rights of elections and all of these different things as well, not a dictatorship.