Growing developing economies rock G8 position

The G8 summit has brought together leaders of the world's eight richest nations. But with the emergence of economies like China and India, many around the world are asking if the exclusive group is still key in offering a blueprint for global governance.

At the Lough Erne golf Resort in Northern Ireland, the leaders of the G-eight powers wrapped up their two-day summit in Northern Ireland. But the dominance of the group eight summit and nations - namely the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia - is being called into question. With many asking whether the influence of the exclusive, club-like nature of the G-eight is weakening its ability to set the global blueprint on economic policy. Since the global financial crash in 2008, the G20 -- a larger consortium of nations, including leaders of 19 countries and the European Union -- has grown in dominance. And while they remain among the largest economies in the world, some wonder if emerging economies, particularly China, Brazil and India should also have a bigger say in the world's economy.

"It seems to me that although they may take an interest in what the discussions are and what the agendas are. I think there isn't any compulsions for them to get involved and we saw what outreach from the G8 did in the mid 2000's and I don't think it was particularly successful and I think some of the countries felt actually quite patronized by that process," said Dr. Andrew Baker, Queen's University Belfast.

While the G20 is now the prevalent forum in global economic governance, experts says that the role of the G-eight is still significant in pushing and influencing issues on the global agenda. John Kirton has being tracking G-eight summits for 26 years and feels it remains a central part of the broader architecture of global governance.

"We at G8 research group monitor the compliance of the G8 countries with their commitments and we know that, on a whole, promises made are promises kept. Indeed the priority commitments they made last year at the Camp David summit have been kept at a level of 80 percent and that's awfully high in the imperfect world of politics," said John Kirton, Director of G8 Research Group, University of Toronto.

Experts here say that this G8 summit, held here in Lough Erne, could be the rebirth of the G8. and in recent years, with the increased role of the G20 summits, the G8 has been trying to find its footing. This summit has seen the G8 go back to its intimate roots beginning with British Prime Minister David Cameron hosting a highly-focused agenda in an intimate setting that required a genuine back and forth between leaders.