The G8 Summit: Three Things to Know

Ahead of the Group of Eight (G8) meeting at Camp David on May 18-19, Terra Lawson-Remer, CFR fellow for Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy, highlights three things to watch:

• Will the U.S. deliver on food security? The food security agenda is the number one development priority for the United States, but the international community has not lived up to its past commitments, says Lawson-Remer. "Whether the U.S. can move that agenda forward," she says, "is going to be a key test of leadership."

• Can the G8 advance the "Arab Spring" transitions? "So far it’s been much more rhetoric than reality," says Lawson-Remer. She says it remains to be seen whether the G8 can "coalesce behind a shared platform and a shared strategy" to support the political transitions in the Middle East and North Africa.

• Growth vs. Austerity? The debate over possible solutions to the eurozone sovereign debt crisis will also play out at the G8 summit, but "many of these conversations have shifted to the G20," says Lawson-Remer.

For all of these issues, Lawson-Remer argues, the G8 can serve as a starting point, and "the thread will be taken up in either the G20 or similar forums that have a more expanded membership beyond just the G8 partners."