The Contemporary Reform of Global Financial Governance: Implications of and Lessons from the Past

As the world experiences its worst financial crisis since the 1930s, policymakers are increasingly calling for a “Bretton Woods II”. To claim the mantle of the 1944 conference, officials will need to be more creative about global financial reform than they have been so far in the three areas where the Bretton Woods architects innovated: 1) the regulation of international financial markets, 2) the management of global imbalances, and 3) the promotion of international development. Important to all these topics is also the need to adjust global financial governance to today’s more decentralized international political environment.