1st Edition

Shaping a New International Financial System Challenges of Governance in a Globalizing World

By Karl Kaiser, John J. Kirton Copyright 2002

    This title was first published in 2000:  An outstanding volume which examines the professional economic merits, practical feasibility, and underlying politics of the hotly contested competing initiatives for strengthening the international financial system. Challenging much of the conventional wisdom, it offers a comprehensive account of the traditional enduring financial issues facing the G7 and the fundamental architectural elements of the new systemic design. This authoritative text contains a rich and balanced array of contributions from distinguished experts from all G7 countries and from emerging markets outside. Essential reading for academics in the areas of economics and management, to political scientists specializing in international political economy and to officials in the government and the private sector.

    Contents: Introduction: Shaping a new international financial system: contributions and challenges. The Crisis and its Legacies: The G7 Summit's contribution: past, present and prospective; The Asian crisis and its implications, Takashi Kiuchi; The G7, international finance and developing countries, Duncan Wood; The dynamics of G7 leadership in crisis response and system reconstruction, John Kirton. Constructing the New System: Transparentizing the global money business: Glasnost or just another wild card in play?, George M. von Furstenburg; Global capital flows: maximizing benefits, minimizing risk, Joseph Daniels; The new financial architecture for the global economy; The role of the International Monetary Fund as lender of last resort, Curzio Giannini. The Broader Issues: Practicing exchange rate flexibility, Olivier Davanne and Pierre Jacquet; Can small countries keep their own money and floating exchange rates?; From globalization to regionalism: the foreign direct investment dimension of international finance, Alan Rugman; Challenges and contributions to the conventional wisdom, Karl Kaiser and John J. Kirton and Joseph Daniels ; Appendix: strengthening the international financial architecture report of G7 finance ministers to the Köln Economic Summit; Bibliography; Index.

    Biography

    Karl Kaiser, John J. Kirton

    ’...a timely and interesting collection on the future of the global financial order by a group of real experts in the field. It is difficult to imagine a more distinguished cast list. The book reads well and will be received with gratitude by scholars of international political economy as a rare example of the cross-fertilisation that is possible between policy makers and academics.’ Andrew Williams, University of Kent at Canterbury, UK ’This is a first-rate piece of work which contributes significantly...to our understanding of the current state and future prospects for stability and order in the international financial system...The editors should be congratulated for bringing together such a wide range of scholarly and bureaucratic experts and for bringing such high standards of academic excellence to bear on the project...This is an excellent volume which will...make a critical contribution to the debate over how and why the international financial structure might be transformed.’ Professor Michael Hawes, Berkeley University, USA ’An examination of G8 Policy dynamics over the last 30 years which provides rare vigour and insight. Both a sensible blueprint for a new international financial system and the definitive handbook for a new kind of governance within the G8 architecture...’ The Asahi Shimbun (Japanese Newspaper) ’Although the authors are senior established figures assessing the world establishment, they nonetheless reach some lively and controversial conclusions...a well written and carefully considered overview of the problems of patching-up the international monetary structure, as seen primarily from the viewpoint of the G7, at the very end of the last century.’ Professor Charles Goodhart, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK ’...a welcome addition to the literature on this important global network...Significant and accessible contributions to the study of the G7/G8.’ Millennium: Journal of International Studies