ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses and analyses the formation of the 'Bretton Woods institutions' the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) as the foundations of modern global economic governance. It shows how political resentment amongst poor and middle-income countries emerged in the 1950s out of growing dissatisfaction with the actual operation of the Bretton Woods institutions. The book addresses the changes that occurred in the 1980s with respect to global governance. It discusses how the map of global governance shifted during the 1990s during the immediate post-Cold War era. The book considers the rise of Japan and East Asia more generally as forces with which to be reckoned in the global political economy, and assesses the transition from state socialism to capitalism of the former Soviet Union and its Republics.
