Invaluable to students and those approaching the subject for the first time, An Introduction to International Relations, Second Edition provides a comprehensive and stimulating introduction to international relations, its traditions and its changing nature in an era of globalisation. Thoroughly revised and updated, it features chapters written by a range of experts from around the world. It presents a global perspective on the theories, history, developments and debates that shape this dynamic discipline and contemporary world politics. Now in full-colour and accompanied by a password-protected companion website featuring additional chapters and case studies, this is the indispensable guide to the study of international relations.

Ayse Kaya analyses the relationship between states' economic power and their political power in key multilateral economic institutions.

In this book, Miles Kahler examines both global and regional institutions and their importance in the world economy. Kahler explains the variation in these institutions and assesses the role they play in sustaining economic cooperation among nations.

Originally published in 1981, this book provided an up-to-date and critical review of the recent history and current status of the main economic institutions affecting international trade and relations at the time. The authors emphasise the economic effectiveness or otherwise of such bodies as GATT, IMF, EEC, UNCTAD and the World Bank, but take account of the political factors present in both the initial ‘design’ and in the way that the institutions have developed. In particular, the book analyses the changed degree of dominance which the USA had been able to exert on the international community.

This book offers a skilled arms-length evaluation, from a legal perspective, of the main criticisms that have been leveled recently at the key global economic organizations – that is, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and its fellow multilateral developmental banks (MDBs), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). THE FUTURE OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORGANIZATIONS stands out from most of the growing body of literature on the IMF, MDBS, and the WTO in two main respects: the book’s scope and the author’s experience. Whereas numerous commentators have focused on particular strengths and weaknesses of one or the other of the GEOs, and have argued for changes on the basis of specific areas of operation, this book takes a wider view to examine all the GEOs at once. This broader scope reveals commonalities in the criticisms. For example, complaints about so-called “democracy deficit” obviously can be applied to all GEOs but with different nuances in emphasis and sting. Against the background of his own experience as a legal counsel for one of the regional MDBs and for the IMF and a legal career that has focused on international economic law, Head distills the swarm of complaints leveled at the IMF, MDBS, and the WTO into 25 specific criticisms and then offers succinct explanations of why some of those criticisms should be dismissed, why some of them are valid, and how those valid criticisms should form the basis for an important restructuring of the institutions, including amendments to the charters that establish and govern their operations. Head speaks largely to three audiences here: persons in various professional positions; persons in national governments and politics around the world who are responsible for implementing their government’s foreign policy; and to more general curious readers on whose involvement in civic life any society ultimately depends. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

The IMF is the first economic institution in line to protect countries from the effects of financial crises and to insulate the world economy from possible systemic risk. However, many argue that the IMF is insufficiently equipped to do this job, while others argue almost the opposite: the IMF's well-intentioned actions induce other countries to take risks which increase their exposure from both universities and the multilateral agencies, combines rigourous economic analysis with insider perspectives on key policy debates. It analyses the Asian and Argentine financial crises of the late 1990s, issues of policy ownership, the more general quest for financial stability and governance of the IMF. It is an essential reference for anyone interested in the role of international financial institutions in our globalised economy.

In the opinions proffered, in the preoccupations shared, indeed even in the silence of omissions, these contributions by distinguished key practitioners from major representative organizations that play a role in the international economic system will be warmly welcomed by the community of scholars, policymakers and practitioners concerned with international economic law.