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Reflections on the economics and politics of international economic organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Lawrence B. Krause  and
Joseph S. Nye
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Extract

International organizations, it is sometimes said, are always designed to prevent the last war. An analogous problem besets economic institutions. The inability of some existing international economic organizations to deal with the current problems in their domains is all too apparent. Two of the institutional pillars of the postwar Bretton Woods system, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. (GATT), were shaken in 1971 and are still suffering from severe malaise. The political and economic conditions that led to their formation at the end of the Second World War have changed, calling into question the political and intellectual foundation upon which they were constructed. In the aftermath of the 1973 energy crisis, meetings of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and a special session of the General Assembly have been the scene of demands by poor countries for a new economic order, but the meaning of the phrase has been ambiguous and the formula has impeded rather than promoted agreement.

Type
Section IV
Information
International Organization , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , Winter 1975 , pp. 323 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1975

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References

1 At the 57th session of ECOSOC in July 1974, for example, agreement on the creation of a UN commission on multinational corporations was impeded by (among other things) disagreements over the verbal formula a new economic order.

2 “Trade Policy Is Foreign Policy, ” Foreign Policy 9 (Winter 1972–1973)Google ScholarPubMed.

3 For elaboration, see Keohane, Robert O. and Nye, Joseph S., “International Interdependence and Integration,” in Greenstein, Fred and Polsby, Nelson, eds., Handbook of Political Science (Andover, Ma.: Addison-Wesley, 1975)Google Scholar.

4 Wolfers's, Arnold “National Security as an Ambiguous Symbol” remains the classic analysis. See his collection of essays, Discord and Collaboration (Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1962)Google Scholar.

5 The list is not exhaustive. Though we live in a secular age, some states (perhaps Saudi Arabia?) might rank promotion of religious values after survival.

6 The concept of collective economic security is elaborated in Nye, Joseph S., “Collective Economic Security,” International Affairs, Fall 1974Google Scholar.

7 The concept of cognizance of military security policies is elaborated in Beaton, Leonard, The Reform of Power (London: Chatto & Windus, 1972)Google Scholar.

8 See Gallagher, J. and Robinson, R., “The Imperialism of Free Trade,” Economic History Review, 03 1953Google Scholar. Also Platt, D. C. M., “Economic Imperialism and the Businessman: Britain and Latin America before 1914,” in Owen, Roger and Sutcliffe, Bob, eds., Studies in the Theory of Imperialism (London: Longman, 1972)Google Scholar.

9 See Cox, Robert and Jacobson, Harold, eds., The Anatomy of Influence: Decision-Making International Organizations (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1973)Google Scholar.

10 Joseph S. Nye, “UNCTAD: Populist Pressure Group,” in Cox and Jacobson.

11 Galtung, Johan, “A Structural Theory of Imperialism,” Journal of Peace Research, 1971: 81–118Google Scholar.

12 This argument is developed in Keohane, Robert O. and Nye, Joseph S., “Transgovernmental Relations and International Organization,” World Politics, 10 1974Google Scholar.

13 Kindleberger, Charles, Power and Money (New York: Basic Books, 1970)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Barraclough, Geoffrey, “The End of an Era,” The New York Review of Books, 27 06 1974Google Scholar.

15 “Excerpts from Interview with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany,” New York Times, 25 August 1974.

16 Nye, “UNCTAD.”

17 Camps, Miriam, The Management of Interdependence (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1974)Google Scholar.