International Economic Governance in a Multipolar World

This book covers key aspects of the governance of the world economy, from the structures of capitalism to regional economic integration through the trading and production systems.

International economic governance was already in crisis well before the pandemic, and talk of the crisis of multilateralism and of the postwar Bretton Woods arrangements had become commonplace. The pandemic, with its economic, political, and international reverberations, has only widened and deepened that crisis, which has now taken the form of a new cold war on China, and made the search for solutions more urgent. In this context, the chapters in this volume contribute to a deeper understanding of how international economic governance and the world economy have been changing over the long run, and provide insights into the new forms they are taking at the macro and micro levels.

The book covers the crisis of capitalism revealed by the pandemic, particularly when contrasted with socialist countries, initiatives of regional economic integration that challenge, rather than being subordinated by, western powers, including the US, the evolution of the trade regime in ways that make contemporary trade wars intelligible, and the shakeup of the international production system.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of The Japanese Political Economy.

Introduction: International economic governance in a multipolar world 1. The US vs China: Economic models in the pandemic stress test 2. The construction of “post-hegemonic multipolarity” in Eurasia: A comparative perspective 3. Export restrictions in the Japan-China-U.S. Trilateral relationship 4. Vertical dis-integration and vertical re-integration: Limits to the modern production system

Radhika Desai is Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Manitoba, Canada, and Director of the Geopolitical Economic Research Group. Recently, she authored Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire (2013), and co-edited Revolutions (2021) and Karl Polanyi for the Twenty First Century (2020).