Honing the Summit Process

On June 6-8, 2011, the Stanley Center, the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) held their third in a series of conferences on the prospects for key influential nations to cooperate—particularly in the G-groupings and summit diplomacy.

A group of experts mainly from the United States, China, and Canada gathered at Airlie Center in Warrenton, Virginia, to pinpoint the multilateral frameworks best able to achieve progress for different areas of policy. By taking stock of a wide range of global governance challenges, participants gained new insights into the evolution and potential of summit diplomacy, and the discussion yielded a number of ideas for how to improve the G-20 summit process.