ABSTRACT
'All of us have the greatest sense of elation,' wrote John Maynard Keynes in the final days of the Bretton Woods Conference in July1944. 'As an experiment in international cooperation, the Conference has been an outstanding success' (Keynes 1980: 108–109). The agreement to create the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in the closing years of the Second World War remains a potent symbol. The role of the IMF has changed considerably since then: between 1945 and 1971 it oversaw the Bretton Wood fixed exchange rate system for the global economy; in the 1980s and 1990s its work focussed primarily on providing large scale loans to emerging markets and developing countries; and in 2008 and 2009, when the consequences of the financial crisis threatened to create a downward spiral of world trade and economic growth, it played a vital role in shaping an effective international economic response. The global economic and financial crisis demonstrated the continuing relevance of mechanisms put in place 60 years earlier, but it also highlighted the potential fragility of the international economic and financial system, and underscored the need for strong frameworks for international economic cooperation. The IMF remains a key component of international economic diplomacy.
