Global Cooperation—An Uphill Battle

• Author: Camilla Lund Andersen

Global Cooperation—An Uphill Battle Finance & Development, September 2017, Vol. 54, No. 3

Camilla Lund Andersen

As access to information burgeons, experts are more crucial than ever

This issue of F&D looks at what is arguably the clearest challenge the world faces: how to address complex global problems amid growing skepticism about the benefits of multilateralism and continued global integration.

Ten years after the global financial crisis, voter dissatisfaction with rising inequality and lack of meaningful jobs has led some countries to focus on more inward-looking policies. As Princeton professor and IMF historian Harold James points out in his overview of the postwar economic order, this seems to include its main architects—the United Kingdom and the United States. The stakes are high. The changing geopolitical environment could undermine the world’s already limited ability to manage such important issues as global money and trade flows, climate change, international terrorism, money laundering, pandemics, and migration.

International taxation has proved particularly vexing. The inability to agree on a common approach to rethink a framework that dates to the 1920s has allowed multinational companies to exploit tax competition among countries, writes the IMF’s Michael Keen. Tobias Adrian and Aditya Narain, also of the IMF...