LONDON -- Are summits worthwhile? Do they add to the sum of human wisdom and achieve beneficial results?
The immediate question is prompted by the imminent Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa -- where 60,000 delegates will discuss "sustainable development." But for many people this is just one more event in a seemingly unending succession of summits that the age of globalization now generates.
The most familiar are the global heads-of-government summits. Communiques full of virtuous undertakings by the world's leaders emerge from these occasions, although one would be hard pressed to list any benefits that have resulted. Meanwhile, the European countries have developed their own summit "rhythm," with regular biannual gatherings of all EU leaders, which again produce long communiques and ambitious targets, many of which are soon forgotten.