A tune-up or an overhaul?

• Author: Laura Wallace
• Position: Editor-in-Chief
• Pages: 1

Page 1

A Refrain often heard in international circles is that global problems-HIV/AIDS, trade disputes, climate change, financial contagion, and many others-require global solutions. is today's global governance system up to the job? After all, the system is based on the post-World War ii model, characterized by the dominance of a few advanced economies. Yet the new global economic order, which has been shaped by decades of rapid economic integration, features new regional and even global powers.

This issue of F&D tries to further the debate on global governance by asking experts in economics, finance, trade, and health-from inside and outside the IMF-to explore what works and what doesn't. A running theme is that if we want to hang on to the progress we've made in all these areas in recent decades, emerging market economies and developing countries must have a bigger say in decision making.

In the cover story, "Global Governance: new Players, new rules," the authors argue that it's increasingly vital that the global community revamp the post-World War ii model to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. These include absorbing demographic change, reducing poverty, expanding the provision of safe and clean energy without aggravating climate change, and alleviating health risks. for them, the answer lies in rationalizing the relationships among sovereign states, updating the existing multilateral institutions, and creating an effective oversight body.

On the financial front, we learn that future crises, much like the crises of the 1990s, are likely to include an element of contagion, meaning that adequate liquidity will be an issue. The recent U.S. subprime mortgage crisis-which revealed broader weaknesses in the international financial system-has breathed new life into the debate over whether and how international financial flows should be regulated.

On the...