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A world economy restored: expert consensus and the Anglo-American postwar settlement

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  • Ikenberry, G. John

Abstract

Although British and U.S. officials held markedly different views during the initial negotiations for a postwar economic order, they were able to reach watershed trade and monetary agreements that set the terms for the reestablishment of an open world economy. How does one explain this Anglo-American settlement reached at Bretton Woods in 1944? Structural explanations, based on underlying configurations of power and interests, are helpful but leave important issues unresolved. Given the range of postwar economic “orders” that were possible and potentially consistent with underlying structures and also given the divergent and conflicting views both within and between the two governments, why did the economic order take the particular shape it took? This article argues that agreement was fostered by a community of British and American economists and policy specialists who embraced a set of policy ideas inspired by Keynesianism and who played a critical role in defining government conceptions of postwar interests, shaping the negotiating agenda (for example, shifting the focus of negotiations from trade issues, which were highly contentious, to monetary issues, about which there was an emerging “middle ground” created by Keynesian ideas), and building coalitions in support of the postwar settlement.

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  • Ikenberry, G. John, 1992. "A world economy restored: expert consensus and the Anglo-American postwar settlement," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 289-321, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:46:y:1992:i:01:p:289-321_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Nelson, Douglas R., 2015. "Prospects for Constitutionalization of the WTO," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 135-153, January.
    2. Maurice Obstfeld, 2020. "Globalization Cycles," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(1), pages 1-12, March.
    3. Obstfeld, Maurice & Clavin, Patricia & Corsetti, Giancarlo & Tooze, Adam, 2021. "Lessons of Keynes’s Economic Consequences in a Turbulent Century," CEPR Discussion Papers 16610, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. S Corbridge, 1994. "Bretton Woods Revisited: Hegemony, Stability, and Territory," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 26(12), pages 1829-1859, December.
    5. Maurice Obstfeld, 2021. "Globalization and nationalism: Retrospect and prospect," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(4), pages 675-690, October.
    6. Schäfer, Armin, 2003. "Stabilizing postwar Europe: Aligning domestic and international goals," MPIfG Working Paper 03/8, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    7. Harold James, 2013. "The multiple contexts of Bretton Woods," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 28(3), pages 411-430, AUTUMN.
    8. Arie Krampf, 2013. "The Life Cycles of Competing Policy Norms - Localizing European and Developmental Central Banking Ideas," KFG Working Papers p0049, Free University Berlin.
    9. James N. Miller, 2001. "Origins of the GATT: British Resistance to American Multilateralism," Macroeconomics 0012005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Mai'a K. Davis Cross, 2015. "The Limits of Epistemic Communities: EU Security Agencies," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(1), pages 90-100.
    11. Chwieroth, Jeffrey & Walter, Andrew, 2015. "Great expectations, veto players, and the changing politics of banking crises," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60953, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. A Leyshon & A Tickell, 1994. "Money Order? The Discursive Construction of Bretton Woods and the Making and Breaking of Regulatory Space," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 26(12), pages 1861-1890, December.
    13. James N. Miller, 2000. "Origins of the GATT - British Resistance to American Multilateralism," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_318, Levy Economics Institute.

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