IMF and the Future or Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World

IMF and the Future: Issues and Options Facing the International Monetary Fund

Author: Graham Bird

The International Monetary Fund has been criticized from both the right and the left of the political spectrum with the right arguing that it is too interventionist and creates more problems than it solves and the left on occasion demanding that it be abolished altogether. What seems almost beyond question is that the IMF needs to be reformed.
Defining a future role for the IMF will always be a controversial issue, but vital to any considerations will be a measured assessment of how it has operated in the past. This excellent new book from an internationally respected expert on the IMF intends to do just that. Starting with an historical background tracing the evolution of the IMF.
The book goes on to cover such themes as:
The circumstances under which countries turn to the IMF
The various aspects of IMF conditionality
Institutional issues such as lending facilities and how the fund is resourced.

Table of Contents:

	List of figures
	List of tables
	Preface
	Acknowledgements
1	A suitable case for treatment?: understanding the ongoing debate about the IMF	1
2	Borrowing from the IMF: the policy implications of recent empirical research	31
3	IMF lending: how is it affected by economic, political and institutional factors?	44
4	IMF programmes - do they work? Can they be made to work better?	68
5	The effectiveness of conditionality and the political economy of policy reform: is it simply a matter of political will?	93
6	IMF programmes: is there a conditionality Laffer curve?	113
7	The credibility and signalling effect of IMF programmes	130
8	The IMF's role in mobilizing international capital: is there a catalytic effect?	141
9	Restructuring the IMF's lending facilities	163
10	Resourcing the Fund: direct borrowing from private capital markets	179
11	Crisis averter, crisis lender, crisis manager: the IMF in search of a systemic role	194
12	The IMF and developing countries: a review of the evidence and policy options	211
13	Political economy influences within the life cycle of IMF programmes	243
14	The political economy of the SDR: the rise and fall of an international reserve asset	267
	Index	291

Look this: Taliban or The Forsaken

Power and Governance in a Partially Globalized World

Author: Robert Keohan

Robert O. Keohane has been one of the most innovative an influential thinkers in international relations for more than three decades. His groundbreaking work in institutional theory has redefined our understanding of international political economy. This work is a collection of his most recent essays that address such core issues as interdependence, institutions, the development of international law, globalization and global governance. The essays are placed in historical and intellectual context by a substantial new introduction outlining the developments in Keohane's thought. In an original afterword, the author offers a challenging interpretation of the September 11th attacks and their aftermath.