The G-8 Is Dead

Democracy no longer counts for much. Neither does freedom. And human rights have lost their claim to universal validity.

That, in a nutshell, is one result of the G-8 summit in the Italian city of L'Aquila last week. It was a funeral ceremony: The G-8 is dead, at least as a global leadership forum. It has now been reduced to a mere talking shop for certain heads of state and government. The important decisions are made elsewhere -- at the G-20, for example.

Admittedly that is fairer, because it means that the emerging countries of the world are also represented. But it is still sad. At its core, the G-8 represents the values of the West. The United States, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Japan all stand for the principle of democracy. Russia is dragged along. Despite all its weaknesses, it is a good club.

The G-20 will not accept any more European countries. At a meeting in Washington, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gruffly asked what Spain was doing sitting at the table. Spain will not be present at the next G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh. Instead, Indonesia and Turkey will be there. These are not flawless democracies, but states with large populations.

And in the future what counts is numbers, not values. Or, as an adviser to German Chancellor Angela Merkel put it in L'Aquila: "The new value is called 'common survival.'" The main themes of the summit were climate, water and nutrition.

The Earth has more people than it can support, and therefore the focus of world politics is shifting to people. They are no longer primarily seen as beings that deserve education, freedom, democracy and human rights. They are now seen as beings that use too much water and emit too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is no longer a question of liberation, but of imposing limits. Consequently, the West no longer sees the Chinese mainly as victims of oppression, but rather as being partly responsible for the destruction of the climate.

When it comes to common survival, the Chinese are urgently needed, and this gives the government in Beijing a lot of power. An effective climate agreement is impossible without their support, and the global financial crisis can not be overcome without their help.