Introduction

The fiftieth anniversary of the Bretton Woods Conference seems an appropriate time to reassess the Bretton Woods institutions. The collapse of the European Monetary System has exposed the need to rethink international institutions and their role in the next century. Simultaneously, as economic upheavals continue in Eastern Europe and Russia, the role of private capital flows around the world must be reassessed. These events, combined with the waning influence of individual nations, have led to a call for a new Bretton Woods agreement — one that will adapt international institutions to a rapidly changing global monetary system.