Group of Five

History

The Group of Five is a context-dependent shorthand term for a group of five nations. The composition of the five and what is encompassed by the term is construed differently in different time frames. In the early 1970s, the term "Group of Five" or "G5" encompassed the five leading economies of the world, but the use of the term changed over time, after the original group became known as the G7 with the inclusion of Italy and Canada.

Between 2005 and 2014, the term was used to describe the next tier of nations whose economies had expanded so substantially as to be construed in the same category as the world's eight major industrialized countries.

20th century

The concept of a forum for the world's major industrialized democracies emerged following the 1973 oil crisis and subsequent global recession. In 1974 the United States created the informal Library Group, an unofficial gathering of senior financial officials from France, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany. These men were called the "Library Group" because they met informally in the library of the White House in Washington, D.C.

During the 1970s, the term Group of Five came to be identified the top five of the world's the leading economies as ranked by per capita GDP. Without the informal meetings of the G5 finance ministers, there would have been no subsequent meetings of G-5 leaders. In 1975, French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing invited five other heads of government from Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany to a six-party economic summit in Château de Rambouillet. At the time, it was impossible to predict whether this informal gathering would be meaningful or only a public relations event.

In subsequent years, the group of world leaders expanded to reflect changed economic and political developments:

• 1975 — the Group of Six (G6)
• 1976 — the Group of Seven (G7) was created when Canada joined the G6
• 1997 — the Group of Eight (G8) was formed when Russia joined the G7

21st century

An innovation at the Gleneagles G8 summit in 2005 was an "outreach dialogue." The United Kingdom was host for the annual summit of G8 leaders; and the UK invited the leaders of Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa to participate as the "Outreach Five" (O5). The invitation caused the five countries to negotiate amongst themselves about presenting common positions.

The success of this collaboration led to the growth of the G5 as an independent voice. The G5 expresses common interests and viewpoints in the search of solutions to major global issues.

A number of cohesive elements bind the G5 together in promoting a constructive dialogue between developed and developing countries.

The Group of Five was invited collectively at subsequent G8+5 summits until 2009. Following the 33rd G8 summit, Heiligendamm 2007, German chancellor Angela Merkel announced the establishment of the "Heiligendamm Process" through which the full institutionalization of a permanent dialogue between the G8 countries and the five greatest emerging economies should be implemented, including a common G8 and G5 platform at the OECD. A final report on the results of the dialogue was put forward in Italy in 2009. Outreach in subsequent G8 summits took other forms, including e.g. African coutnries.

In the meantime, the BRICS, made of the same countries minus Mexico plus Russia, became a major forum of collaboration among the largest developing economies, starting with the 1st BRIC summit in June 2009.

In 2014, the exclusion of Russia from the G8 following the annexation of Crimea made to the G8+5 pointless, ending the need for the Group of Five in its previous format to prepare common positions.

Structure and activities

The G5 is an informal group for discussions involving an intentional community or an epistemic community. The G5 membership is marked by a range of attributes and factors, including

(a) a shared set of normative and principled beliefs, which provide a value-based rationale for the social action of community members;

(b) shared causal beliefs, which are derived from their analysis of practices leading or contributing to a central set of problems in their domain and which then serve as the basis for elucidating the multiple linkages between possible policy actions and desired outcomes;

(c) shared notions of validity — that is, intersubjective, internally defined criteria for weighing and validating knowledge in the domain of their expertise; and

(d) a common policy enterprise—that is, a set of common practices associated with a set of problems to which their group competence is directed.

By design, the G5 has avoided establishing an administrative structure like those of other international organizations, but a coordinator has been designated to help improve the G5's effectiveness.

Current leaders

Notes

References

• Bayne, Nicholas and Robert D. Putnam. (2000). Hanging in There: The G7 and G8 Summit in Maturity and Renewal. Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Ashgate Publishing. ; OCLC 43186692
• Reinalda, Bob and Bertjan Verbeek. (1998). Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations. London: Routledge. ; ;; OCLC 39013643

References

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2. "Group of Five website".
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4. [[University of Toronto]], G8 Information Centre: [http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/g5/index.html Group of Five].
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6. Bayne, Nicholas ''et al.'' (2000). ''Hanging in There'', Ashgate Pub Ltd, 230 pages, {{ISBN. 075461185X, p. 34.
7. Farnsworth, Clyde H. [https://www.nytimes.com/1977/05/08/archives/washington-report-a-secret-society-of-finance-ministers.html?sq=rambouillet++5+1975&scp=8&st=p "A Secret Society of Finance Ministers,"] ''New York Times.'' May 8, 1977.
8. Mullaney, Thomas E. [https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0A13FB3E55157493C1AB178AD95F418785F9&scp=2&sq=rambouillet++5+1975&st=p "The Economic Scene: The View From Europe,"] ''New York Times.'' November 23, 1975.
9. [[Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Japan)]]: [http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/summit/2000/past_summit/table_e/index.html Summit Meetings in the Past]; [http://www.deljpn.ec.europa.eu/union/showpage_en_union.external.g8.php "EU and the G8"] {{webarchive. link. (2007-02-26)
10. Saunders, Doug. [https://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080704.wG8-analysis05/BNStory/International/columnists "Weight of the world too heavy for G8 shoulders,"] {{webarchive. link. (2008-10-11 ''Globe and Mail'' (Toronto). July 5, 2008; Reuters: [https://web.archive.org/web/20081023185037/http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKB26280520080703?sp=true "Factbox: The Group of Eight: what is it?"], July 3, 2008.)
11. "G5 Overview; Evolución del Grupo de los Cinco".
12. "Die G8 – Akteure in einer globalen Entwicklungspartnerschaft".
13. Reinalda, Bob ''et al.'' (1998). {{Google books. Bt3AzOHtXwgC. ''Autonomous Policy Making by International Organizations,'' p. 184