Journal of International Affairs articles from September 2008

Journal of International Affairs archives from September 2008

Editors' forward.(Editorial)
September 22, 2008... The choice of global finance as the unifying theme for this issue of the Journal of International Affairs should require no explanation. The successive crises afflicting international markets have fixated scholars, pundits and the public at...

Financial diplomacy and the credit crunch: the rise of central banks.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND THE STATE)
September 22, 2008... Economic diplomacy can be defined as the method by which states conduct their external economic relations. It embraces how they make decisions domestically, how they negotiate internationally and how the two processes interact. Economic...

A neo-Westphalian international financial system?(GLOBAL FINANCE AND THE STATE)
September 22, 2008... In the late 1990s, private markets were widely assumed to have triumphed over the state. State firms were perceived to be a recipe for failure. Large financial flows overwhelmed and humbled small states. Countries that wanted to succeed had to...

Governments as market players: state innovation in the global economy.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND THE STATE)
September 22, 2008... Financial innovation emanating from the public sector is not a new phenomenon. The literature and practice of financial regulation is filled with instances in which the public sector understood and tried to contain financial excesses and...

Foreign direct investment and interstate military conflict.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY)
September 22, 2008... On 8 December 1996, Thomas L. Friedman published his Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention, which states that, "No two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other." The rationale, according to Friedman,...

The U.S. campaign to squeeze terrorists' financing.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY)
September 22, 2008... While mounting an individual terrorist attack costs relatively little, money remains of critical importance for terrorist organizations. Without it, terrorist groups would be incapable of maintaining the broad infrastructure necessary to run an...

China as a creditor: a rising financial power?(GLOBAL FINANCE AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY)
September 22, 2008... To what extent is China emerging as a major power in the international financial system? Despite the increasing concern in western policymaking circles, there has yet to be substantial academic debate over whether China should now be considered...

The use of financial measures to promote security.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY)
September 22, 2008... In recent years both the Bush Administration and the United States Congress have embraced financial measures to pressure individuals, groups and regimes threatening United States security interests, especially to combat terrorism and the spread...

Sovereign wealth funds and the (in)security of global finance.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS)
September 22, 2008... Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) sit at the intersection of high finance and high politics. Their net worth is currently estimated to exceed $3 trillion--more than the value of all private equity or hedge funds. SWFs were responsible for 35...

The business of governments: nationalism in the context of sovereign wealth funds and state-owned enterprises.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS)
September 22, 2008... There is Russia and there's Norway, so sovereign wealth funds differ just as (countries do).... I like some countries, some other countries not so much. --Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Barney Frank (D-MA) (1) ...

A one-and-a-half currency system.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND CURRENT IMPLICATIONS)
September 22, 2008... Even before Europe's Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) came into existence nearly a decade ago, a brilliant future was predicted for the euro as an international currency. At last, many argued, the European Union (EU) would have a monetary unit...

A very North Atlantic credit crunch: geopolitical implications of the global liquidity crisis.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND CURRENT IMPLICATIONS)
September 22, 2008... This paper explores some of the geopolitical implications of the continuing global credit crunch. In its methods and subject matter, geopolitics is a field alien to financial economics. While financial economics seeks to derive a theory of...

Mortgage capital and its particularities: a new frontier for global finance.(GLOBAL FINANCE AND CURRENT IMPLICATIONS)
September 22, 2008... The financial deepening of economies has become one of the major dynamics characterizing advanced economies. The ratio of global financial assets to global gross domestic product (GDP) was nearly 350 percent in 2006, a ratio that jumps to 450...

An interview with C.K. Prahalad.(INTERVIEW)(Interview)
September 22, 2008... C.K. Prahalad is a management thinker and author of the best-selling The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits and the recently published The New Age of Innovation. He is a world-renowned expert on business...

The advent of the International Financial Reporting Standards: a catalyst for changing global finance.(ANDREW WELLINGTON CORDIER ESSAY)
September 22, 2008... We are now living through a transformational period marked by a fading American empire and an emerging global landscape. Recent years have seen globalization gain breadth and depth as the internet has leveled the playing field, more countries...

On being Superclass.(Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making)(Brief article)
September 22, 2008... Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making David Rothkopf (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), 376 pages. If current economic conditions were not enough to test one's tolerance of elitism, Superclass...

American hegemony and the ascendance of direct finance.(The Victory of Dividends: U.S. Power in International Finance)(Book review)
September 22, 2008... The Victory of Dividends: U.S. Power in International Finance Leonard Seabrooke (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 287 pages. In the face of a financial crisis that rivals that which led to the Great Depression, scholars and the public...

The Washington Consensus Reconsidered: Towards a New Global Governance.(FURTHER READING)(Book review)
September 22, 2008... THE WASHINGTON CONSENSUS RECONSIDERED: TOWARDS A NEW GLOBAL GOVERNANCE Narcis Serra and Joseph E. Stiglitz, eds. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 382 pages. As Wall Street experiences a meltdown, macroeconomic stability...

One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions and Economic Growth.(Further Reading)(Book review)
September 22, 2008... ONE ECONOMICS, MANY RECIPES: GLOBALIZATION, INSTITUTIONS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH Dani Rodrik (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007), 278 pages. There is an irony in reviewing a book that examines the role of institutions in...

Petrostate: Putin, Power and the New Russia.(Further Reading)(Book review)
September 22, 2008... PETROSTATE: PUTIN, POWER AND THE NEW RUSSIA Marshall I. Goldman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 256 pages. The current crisis in the world's markets has hit Russia's economy hard. Until recently, amid the global storm, the...

Base Politics: Democratic Change and the U.S. Military Overseas.(Further Reading)(Book review)
September 22, 2008... BASE POLITICS: DEMOCRATIC CHANGE AND THE U.S. MILITARY OVERSEAS Alexander Cooley (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008), 309 pages. The United States does not officially pay foreign governments for the privilege of basing...

The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What It Means.(Further Reading)(Book review)
September 22, 2008... THE NEW PARADIGM FOR FINANCIAL MARKETS: THE CREDIT CRISIS OF 2008 AND WHAT IT MEANS George Soros (New York: Public Affairs, 2008), 162 pages. An economic storm big enough to drive public discourse towards George Soros's philosophy...

Breaking the Barriers to Higher Economic Growth: Better Governance and Deeper Reforms in the Middle East and North Africa.(Further Reading)(Book review)
September 22, 2008... BREAKING THE BARRIERS TO HIGHER ECONOMIC GROWTH: BETTER GOVERNANCE AND DEEPER REFORMS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA Mustapha Kamel Nabli (Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2007), 486 pages. In a three-part compilation of...

Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet.(Further Reading)
September 22, 2008... COMMON WEALTH: ECONOMICS FOR A CROWDED PLANET Jeffrey Sachs (New York: Penguin Press, 2008), 400 pages. Jeffrey Sachs has become the most renowned expert on economics and poverty in the world. In his new book, Common Wealth:...

Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America's Soul.(Further Reading)(Book review)
September 22, 2008... FORGOTTEN CONTINENT: THE BATTLE FOR LATIN AMERICA'S SOUL Michael Reid (London: Yale University Press, 2007), 384 pages. Pay (and collect) your taxes. This is a crucial, albeit subtle component of Michael Reid's argument for further...