Kenen rejects the urging of those calling for the abolition of the International Monetary Fund, and contends that efforts to reform the Fund deserve U.S. support.
The current system of international governance (including the United Nations, the G7/G8, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank) is undergoing serious problems in its attempts to address contemporary global challenges, seemingly ill-equipped to bridge growing political and economic divides and to accommodate the needs of emergent markets. Given these developments, some scholars and practitioners argue there is a need to establish new multilateral forums that reflect 21st century realities, such as a new Leaders Summit comprised of the leaders of 20 nations (called L20, an institution that draws its inspiration from both the current G7/8 leaders' meetings and the G20 finance ministers' meetings). This publication explores the changing nature of relationships in a globalised world and considers the role that a L20 grouping could play in bringing about reform of international economic and financial systems.
Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. Subcommittee on Security and International Trade and Finance
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is in eclipse as the preeminent institution promoting international economic and financial stability. Successful reform of the IMF must engage the full spectrum of its members. The IMF should not focus primarily on its low-income members and the challenges of global poverty nor should it focus exclusively on international financial crises affecting a small group of vulnerable emerging-market economies. Instead, it must be engaged with each of its members potentially on the full range of their economic and financial policies and play a central role in shaping global economic performance. This important new book strongly argues that systemically important countries, starting with the Group of Seven, must support the IMF in this role. Its recommendations cover all key aspects of IMF responsibilities and operations: (1) In the crucial area of governance, the membership of the IMF should promptly address the reallocation of IMF shares (voting power) and the reallocation of chairs (representation on the IMF executive board), and it is time to discard the old conventions and to adopt a merit-based approach to the choice of the IMF's leadership; (2) mechanisms should be put in place to increase the IMF's leverage over systemically important members, and the IMF must act more forcefully in discharging its responsibility to exercise firm surveillance over members' exchange rate policies; (3) the Fund's central role in external financial crises should be reaffirmed; (4) the IMF should narrow and refocus its involvement with its low-income members; (5) the IMF's activities should be updated with respect to members' capital account policies and financial sectors; and (6) the IMF should put in place procedures for borrowing from the market to guard against the possibility that it will not receive timely increases in its quota resources.
In this book, leading international relations experts and practitioners examine through theory and case study the prospect for successful multilateral management of the global economy and international security. In the theory section contributors tackle the big questions: Why is there an apparent rising tide of calls for reform of current multilateral organizations and institutions? Why are there growing questions over the effectiveness of global governance? Is the reform of current organizations and institutions likely or possible? Case studies include the examination of difficulties facing global development, the challenges facing the IMF and the governance of global finance, the problems of the UN 2005 World Summit and its failed reform, and the WTO and the questions raised by the prolonged Doha Development Round. Co-published with the Centre for International Governance Innovation
The IMF stands at a crossroad. Derided as increasingly irrelevant in the first decade of the new millennium, the Fund has had its power and prestige restored by the fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis. But will the resurgent IMF assert a more just and sustainable macroeconomic model and provide a voice for poor and marginalized people around the globe? Or will enduring weaknesses within the IMF mean it fails to address these issues? In this book, Bessma Momani and Mark R. Hibben dissect the variables and institutional dynamics at play in IMF governance, surveillance, lending, and capacity development to expose the fundamental barriers to change. Identifying four areas that could “fix” the IMF, they show how these genuine and workable solutions can give the IMF the effectiveness and legitimacy it needs to positively shape twenty-first-century global governance and push back against volatile and regressive forces in the international political economy.
Author: International Monetary Fund. Strategy, Policy, & Review Department
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 9781498335829
Category: Business & Economics
Page: 40
View: 988
This paper summarizes the main governance challenges and reform options facing the IMF, drawing together the analysis and reform proposals in the reports of the Eminent Persons Group (headed by Trevor Manuel), the IEO, and a range of other recent work on Fund governance. Lest the wide scope of these inputs result in a laundry list, judgment has been exercised in selecting key issues and proposals, and in laying out some of the pros and cons. With reform of quotas/voting power on a separate track, the focus here is on the institutional framework through which members express voting power, weaknesses in which are seen by many to have eroded the Fund’s legitimacy and effectiveness, thereby displacing the debate and initiative to outside entities. While an overall reform package would have to include quota shares, the key proposals discussed here aim to: increase political engagement and oversight; enhance Executive Board effectiveness and representation; modify voting rules; better delineate responsibilities; open up management selection; and tackle problems with mandate and institutional culture that limit the issues and approaches taken. Civil society has expressed a range of concerns related to IMF governance, including with regard to accountability at all levels (IMFC, Executive Board, management, and staff), mechanisms for responding to complaints and feedback from the broader public, and transparency. Given the diversity of their interests, and to provide unfiltered access to CSO views, the supplement: Fourth Pillar Recommendations from Civil Society; Preliminary Summary of Principles, Issues and Recommendations; has been prepared by CSO groups.
The United Nations in the 21st Century provides a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to the United Nations, exploring the historical, institutional, and theoretical foundations of the UN. This popular text for courses on international organizations and international relations also discusses the political complexities facing the organization today. Thoroughly revised throughout, the fifth edition focuses on major trends since 2012, including changing power dynamics, increasing threats to peace and security, and the growing challenges of climate change and sustainability. It examines the proliferating public-private partnerships involving the UN and the debates over reforming the Security Council and the Secretary-General selection process. This edition also includes new case studies on peacekeeping and the use of force in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mali, transnational terrorism and the emergence of ISIS, the Security Council's failure to act in Syria, the Syrian and global refugee/migrant crisis, and the conclusion of the Millennium Development Goals and framing of the Sustainable Development Goals.
September 2008 saw the United States financial system at the edge of collapse, with the tightly integrated global financial system following close behind. But that was only a symptom of the problems that generated the ensuing crisis. The more fundamental cause lay in some of the practices that had developed in many of the major financial institutions. The emergence of perverse incentives helped create a credit bubble that eventually burst. But even these failures of the financial system, by themselves, would have been unlikely to cause a crisis of the scale that the world confronted. The crisis was fostered by the massive expansion of liquidity that developed in the global financial system-and its inevitable impact on interest rates and the search for yield that those low rates created. That, in turn, was a result of failures within the International Monetary System. The book will help anyone who is seeking to understand how the International Monetary System works, the sources of its weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and the proposals for the change. The Report of the Palais Royal Initiative and the other papers in this book will help stimulate a global discussion of the reforms to the International Monetary System that are so urgently needed.
This Handbook addresses the increasingly contested issue of profound political importance: Europe's presence in multilateral institutions. It assesses both the evolving role of Europe in international institutions, and the transformations in international institutions themselves.
Kenen rejects the urging of those calling for the abolition of the International Monetary Fund, and contends that efforts to reform the Fund deserve U.S. support.
