Presidents and prime ministers from the Group of Eight gathered for their annual summit in Lough Erne, Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday. Although the unprecedented financial crisis has somewhat played down the significance of the G8 summit, it was the former US government subcontractor Edward Snowden's revelations about the US National Security Agency's program to clandestinely scoop up information from around the world, that really made a mess of the G8 summit, throwing US President Barack Obama off-balance.

But the G8 summit did show that the developed countries, in particular the G7 (Russia is still considered as an "outsider"), are seeking to "re-activate" and inject new vitality into their old economic, political and security alliance in the face of the collective rise of emerging economies

There are several reasons why the developed countries led by the US are eager to upgrade their economic and security cooperation and coordination.