Introduction

The world economy is struggling with many critical economic, social, political, and environmental issues, and the current systems are inadequate to resolve the risks, as the problems and their impacts are increasing. Understanding the relationship between politics and economics is essential when structuring a sustainable economic and financial system. Thus, it is important to analyze the effects of past political decisions, events, and conflicts on the global economy. In this introductory chapter, starting from World War I, the impacts of past and current global and regional wars and terrorist attacks on the global economy, international trade, business, and the finance industry were discussed, the effects of the past financial crises and their interrelations with the political decisions were examined, and the standards, agreements, and international organizations established for exiting the crises were summarized. The effects of technology on the finance world and the influences of pandemics on the global economy were described. The alternative sustainable economic model proposed under developing, balancing, saving, and sharing principles was also introduced, and the potential implication areas of the new approach were briefly explained.