G8 – Suspension or Fall? From Cold War to Cold War. A Short History of Russian Participation in Major Industrial Democracies

As the result of Russian policy in Ukraine and annexation of the Crimea the G7 leaders agreed at the nuclear summit in the Hague on 25 March 2014, that instead of the G8 summit in Sochi in June 2014 there would be a meeting of G7 leaders in Brussels. These historic events concerning activities of the Group form the background for the specific research goals of this paper: to shortly present the reasons for establishing the G7 and G8; to briefly describe the various issues which have been discussed at annual summits; to introduce the multi-dimensional relations between the G7/G8 and other international organizations; and to assess the effectiveness of particular members of the Group in implementing the decisions taken at the summits. At the end of the paper an attempt is made to answer the question whether, in this new political situation, this specific international institution can continue to work actively for global security. One of the goals of this research was also to evaluate the activity of the G7/G8 from the perspective of more than 30 years. At the end of this paper I try to answer the question whether such a specific intergovernmental institution is still able to act effectively and influence the different dimensions of international security inherent in the new political situations, especially with respect to Russia’s war-oriented foreign policy in 2014-2016.

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