Introduction

In recent years, the exclusive club of leading industrialized countries, the Group of 8 (G-8), has suffered from a growing legitimacy crisis due to its lack of representativeness and effectiveness (Cooper and Kelly 2007; Lesage 2007). Propelled by the economic and political rise of new powers from the global South, such as the ‘Asian drivers of global change’ (Kaplinsky and Messner 2008), the controversy over the G-8 summit architecture has gained new momentum. Present and past leaders of the West such as Britain's Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, French President Nikolas Sarkozy and Canada's former Prime Minister, Paul Martin, have called for the formal enlargement of the G-8. In her attempt to strike a balance between those in favour of inclusion and those defending the status quo, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as host of the 2007 summit, decided to launch an innovative outreach effort towards five emerging powers. The so-called Heiligendamm process (HP) has a two-year life span and will engage Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa (the G-5) in an institutionalized dialogue on four critical issue areas.

This paper examines the implications of the HP for the system of global governance and asks some critical questions: Will the ‘structured dialogue’ lead to a more inclusive summit arrangement and strengthen the position of emerging countries in the international order? Will the G-5 be able to coordinate their positions and extract concessions from industrialized countries that not only benefit themselves but also the developing world in general?