Fortunately for the leaders of the world's leading industrialized nations, very little is actually expected of their annual summits. The meetings have become photo opportunities at which they assure the world of their unity and sense of purpose and then announce some major initiative to prove the point. This year's meeting, at Sea Island, Georgia, proved no exception. The Group of Eight leaders supported a peaceful transition in Iraq, promised to promote democracy in the Middle East and endorsed a plan to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. All are laudable goals, but seeing them realized will require far more concerted action than the leaders have shown in recent years.
A show of unity was a major goal at this year's meeting. Iraq has created deep divisions among the G8 nations. Differences among NATO allies — the United States, Britain and Italy vs. France, Germany and, more recently, Spain — are especially worrying. This year's summit came on the heels of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of D-Day, a powerful reminder for Europeans of America's past sacrifices for them; and the death of Ronald Reagan, the U.S. president who helped bring the Cold War, and the division of the continent, to an end.
Reconciliation, rather than just unity, was a key theme at the meeting. By all accounts, it was accomplished. In particular, officials from both sides of the trans-Atlantic divide spoke of a new and genuine sense of shared purpose. Given the issues they had to tackle, nothing less would have sufficed.