Page 99 - Global Political Economy_Understanding The International Economic Order

CHA PTER F OUR
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other obstacles to mutually beneficial cooperation. It is desirable to
study such important issues as the origins of international regimes,
the content, rules, and norms of international regimes, and the history
of compliance by affected states, particularly in situations when a
regime is perceived as being counter to a state’s interests.
Origins
International regimes have developed in a number of different ways.
Some have arisen spontaneously and do not involve conscious design;
many of the informal rules governing markets are of this type. Others
have resulted from international negotiations among states; the post–
World War II Bretton Woods system of trade and monetary regimes,
for example, was the result of international negotiations, primarily
between the United States and Great Britain. Still other regimes have
been imposed by powerful states on less powerful ones; the colonial
systems of the nineteenth century are a notorious example. This sec-
tion will concentrate upon regimes created through international ne-
gotiations, especially the Bretton Woods regimes for trade and mone-
tary affairs that were the result of American leadership.
In creating the post–World War II regimes, the most important
task for American leadership was to promote international coopera-
tion. The United States undertook the leadership role, and other eco-
nomic powers (Canada, Japan, and Western Europe)cooperated for
economic, political, and ideological reasons. These allies believed that
a liberal world economy would meet their economic interests and also
solidify their alliance against the Soviet threat. In addition, coopera-
tion was greatly facilitated by the fact that these nations shared an
ideological commitment to a liberal international economy based on
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free trade and open markets. All three factors—leadership, coopera-
tion, and ideological consensus—were important to creation of the
post–World War II liberal international economy.

20
Andrew Schotter, The Economic Theory of Social Institutions (New York: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1981), 26.
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The term “epistemic community,” attributed to John Ruggie, has been given to
the role of shared ideas or beliefs in promoting international cooperation. A useful
discussion is Peter Haas, Saving the Mediterranean (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1990). An important volume on the subject is Judith Goldstein and Robert O.
Keohane, eds., Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993). Another important study is Judith Goldstein,
Ideas, Interests, and American Trade Policy (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993).
While I agree that ideas are very important, they are important politically insofar as
they are supported by the interests and power of important actors such as states or
domestic political coalitions.
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