Between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, after decades of trying to limit short-term international capital movements, advanced industrial states moved decisively in the direction of decontrol. What has driven this remarkable policy convergence? The answer lies not in ideological change or...

The very phrase "League of Nations" is a metaphor for international organizational failure. In the wake of the war it was designated to prevent, the League became the example to be avoided in building new multilateral institutions. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that our textbooks on...

Liberal and critical theorists alike claim that the world political economy is becoming globalized. If they are right, leading corporations should gradually be losing their national characters and converging in their fundamental strategies and operations. Multinational corporations (MNCs) should...

Financial risks as well as opportunities now flow more freely across the borders of all but the poorest countries in the world. But globalizing finance became an observable fact before appropriate political structures were in place to steer it. The basic proposition that robust financial markets...

Geography continues to shape the character and promise of Hong Kong's financial sector. Its physical and human links to the heartland of China made it a natural center for trade in goods and services. And when trade between nations mediated by merchant companies was largely transformed by the...

The cross-border financial crisis that began in the United States in the summer of 2007 tested a 30-year experiment in international integration. In the background were expanding macroeconomic imbalances that leading states had neglected to address. Spawned by imprudence and regulatory failures,...

A significant adaptation has recently occurred in the mandate of the International Monetary Fund. With no alteration to its legal charter, the Fund has effectively become the promoter of a putative consensus among its leading member states on intrusive norms of industrial regulation. At a time...

Despite the fragility of authoritative governing institutions at the international level, the political capacity to deal with global risks is developing. The sense of legitimacy that will ultimately derive from a deeply transnational sense of shared fate continues to lag, but even in that regard...

In addressing the relationship between the structures of national financial markets, capital mobility, and the rules governing international trade and investment, this article combines theory and policy. Focusing mainly on the United States, Germany, and Japan, it first draws together themes and...

Financial and capital market integration in Europe is now well-advanced, but it confronts a serious challenge in the design of workable arrangements for crisis prevention, management and resolution. The expansion of large, complex financial intermediaries exposes the limits of a supervisory...