Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- List of contributors
- Preface and acknowledgments
- An introduction to international relations: the origins and changing agendas of a discipline
- 1 Theory and practice in Australian international relations: the search for identity and security
- Part 1 Theories of international relations
- Part 2 The traditional agenda: states, war and law
- Part 3 The new agenda: globalisation and global governance
- 20 Multilateral economic institutions
- 21 Global trade
- 22 Global finance
- 23 Non-state actors: multinational corporations and international non-governmental organisations
- 24 Global poverty and inequality
- 25 Globalisation and its critics
- 26 The globalisation of Islam
- 27 Global terrorism
- 28 Humanitarianism and armed intervention
- 29 Human rights
- 30 Migration and refugees
- 31 Global environmental politics
- 32 Global governance and the United Nations
- Glossary of terms
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
22 - Global finance
from Part 3 - The new agenda: globalisation and global governance
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables, figures and boxes
- List of contributors
- Preface and acknowledgments
- An introduction to international relations: the origins and changing agendas of a discipline
- 1 Theory and practice in Australian international relations: the search for identity and security
- Part 1 Theories of international relations
- Part 2 The traditional agenda: states, war and law
- Part 3 The new agenda: globalisation and global governance
- 20 Multilateral economic institutions
- 21 Global trade
- 22 Global finance
- 23 Non-state actors: multinational corporations and international non-governmental organisations
- 24 Global poverty and inequality
- 25 Globalisation and its critics
- 26 The globalisation of Islam
- 27 Global terrorism
- 28 Humanitarianism and armed intervention
- 29 Human rights
- 30 Migration and refugees
- 31 Global environmental politics
- 32 Global governance and the United Nations
- Glossary of terms
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
This chapter presents a fleeting history of key changes in global finance during the past century based around the themes of crisis, architecture, and socialisation, with an emphasis on the role of US power in shaping global finance. Through these three themes we can see why global finance has become increasingly internationally institutionalised, as well as how it is having an ever-greater impact on our everyday lives. The first section of the chapter discusses global finance in the first half of the twentieth century. The second section considers the emergence of the post-World War II Bretton Woods regime. The third section outlines the rise of private capital in the 1970s. The fourth section traces the impact of the debt crisis of the 1980s. The fifth section considers discussions of global financial architecture in the 1990s. The sixth section discusses the role of surveillance in our contemporary global financial system. Finally, the seventh section examines Australia's role in global finance.
Who is afraid of the global financial system?
Within international relations, calls for the study of global finance were initially based on fears that market actors had gained the upper hand over states after the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of international finance (explained below). It was thought that the international political economy would be prone to frequent and severe economic crises, with advanced industrial economies forced to dismantle their welfare regimes at the behest of international financial competition.
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- An Introduction to International RelationsAustralian Perspectives, pp. 260 - 271Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007