Work Package Leader
SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON – SOAS, United Kingdom
Objectives
This work package has three broad objectives. These are to address:
- The changing global financial and monetary system, including the rising influence of major emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India;
- The impact of these changes on developing and emerging economies;
- The changing role of the EU within this global context;
The context for the research of this work package is the continuing weakening of the system of globalization based on the U.S. dollar and the U.S. financial system in the wake of the global financial crisis. An international financial system integrated predominantly by private capital markets appears to be gradually giving way to a system in which government agencies, such as central banks, multilateral agencies, such as the International Monetary Fund, and multilateral government bodies, such as the G20, appear to be exerting more influence, such as through currency swap arrangements between central banks, the refinancing of cross-border credit, and some increase in the regulation of the practices of private banks.
Part of this process involves a division of labour in which a ‘new regionalism’ appears to be emerging. This can be defined as the increasing co-operation between governments in particular regions, most notably in Africa, Europe and East Asia, in resolving critical economic, social and political difficulties affecting more than one country in a region. This new regionalism gives bodies, such as the EU, a special mandate for coordinating policy, reforming governance and maintaining financial and monetary stability in the region, as well as participating in institutions of global governance.Content here.
The emergence of this ‘new regionalism’ inevitably involves some restructuring of the New International Financial Architecture that was established at the turn of the century and is exemplified by the new coordinating role of the G20. This restructuring embraces the whole international financial system, in contrast to merely redefining the terms of engagement of the IMF and the World Bank, as had happened towards the end of the last century in the wake of another series of international financial crises. In this new emerging architecture, the EU will have to play a different role and already has had to face different responsibilities vis-à-vis its members, states on its periphery, and developing countries and major emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India, South Africa and Turkey.