Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Evolving State
- 3 The Changing Nature of Welfare
- 4 Disaster and Redemption: 1930s and Bretton Woods
- 5 The Transformation of the Bretton Woods World and the Rise of a New Economic Order
- 6 The End of Bretton Woods and the Beginning of a New Global Trading Order
- 7 The Enablement of Global Economic Opportunity
- 8 Trade and Security
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Disaster and Redemption: 1930s and Bretton Woods
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Evolving State
- 3 The Changing Nature of Welfare
- 4 Disaster and Redemption: 1930s and Bretton Woods
- 5 The Transformation of the Bretton Woods World and the Rise of a New Economic Order
- 6 The End of Bretton Woods and the Beginning of a New Global Trading Order
- 7 The Enablement of Global Economic Opportunity
- 8 Trade and Security
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Thesis:
The trade order established at Bretton Woods was the product of forces unique to the postwar era. The norm of comparative advantage was a natural complement to the nation-state constitutional order of the society of states. Bretton Woods illustrates how a trade norm complements and enhances domestic Statecraft. In the case of Bretton Woods, it also demonstrates how the marriage of a trade norm to a particular iteration of the State sows the seeds of metamorphosis in the nature of the State.
World War II left the European nations and Japan in ruins. Before the war's end, it was clear that vast reconstruction would be the only way to revive the economies of Europe and Asia. However, reconstruction would not be sufficient, for it was plain that investment in both infrastructure and, in the case of the Axis powers, the development of democratic institutions, would need to be accompanied by monetary policy reform of a global nature. The system established at Bretton Woods had three principal structural dimensions: (1) the ordering of international trade through an International Trade Organization; (2) the fostering of international development under the umbrella of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development; and (3) the administration of monetary and financial matters through the International Monetary Fund.
Information
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- Chapter
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- The New Global Trading OrderThe Evolving State and the Future of Trade, pp. 67 - 80Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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