ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the postwar institutional framework the North developed to manage the global economy. It also focuses on two other groups of states that had only a limited role in establishing the postwar economic order and at times sought to form an alternative order: the South and the former East bloc led by the Soviet Union. Hegemonic stability theorists attribute the economic instability in the interwar period to the lack of a global hegemon. The keystone international economic organizations (KIEO) are often credited with contributing to almost unprecedented global economic growth and change over the past five decades. Delegates from 44 countries convened the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire, and within 22 days they endorsed a framework for international economic cooperation after World War II. Business firms, which often support the neoliberal globalization process, are the most influential non state actors in the global economy.
