World Economy - Bloc-Buster Idea: Make It The G-3 - by Jim Hoagland
John McCain would kick Russia out of the Group of Eight economic powers that meet in Japan this week. But this is no time to think small. The G-8 leaders themselves should declare surrender and disband their high-profile huddle on the state of the world. Think of it as global shock therapy: Using the July 7-9 summit on Hokkaido Island to abandon the bloated, unwieldy G-8 format would be a first step toward acknowledging and rethinking -- at the highest level -- these important international realities. The G-8 long ago proved that bigger is not always better. The intimate gathering of just six leaders that French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing convoked in 1975 has been transmogrified into a giant public relations exercise with little real point. And the admission of Russia in 1998 -- despite its lack of qualifications as an established democratic industrial power -- further diluted the process.
Predictable suggestions that this body be expanded to a G-13 or a G-20 go in the absolute wrong direction.
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