It’s 2016, the year of Brexit and Trump—but May, one month before the former and six before the latter. Barack Obama is addressing the G7 for the final time in a private session. I watch him describe the critical role that table played in managing the global events of his presidency. From the fallout of the great financial crisis to Russia’s illegal 2014 annexation of Crimea and to the Paris Climate Agreement negotiations, he paints a picture of an imperfect but irreplaceable multilateral institution that is to be appreciated and protected. It is peak Obama: intelligent, incisive, self-deprecating, wise, lengthy. He closes by apologizing for going over his allotted time but begs his colleagues’ indulgence, “since it is my last G7.”
British prime minister David Cameron speaks next. I remember him opening with a joke riffing on Obama’s close: “Who knows? We’ll see next month if this is my last G7.”
