The world is at a crossroads, with one path leading to ever more global fragmentation and deepening crises, and the other offering a chance to pursue individual and shared prosperity through joint solutions to common problems. While the choice seems clear, the outcome depends on our ability to overhaul existing institutions.
EDINBURGH – The Bretton Woods institutions – the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – are now 80 years old. But they are as under-resourced and poorly supported by national governments as at any time in their history. Their predicament is perhaps the clearest sign that economic and financial multilateralism is fragmenting along with the global economy. Worse, this fragmentation comes at a time of rising international tensions, financial fragility, sputtering growth, rising poverty, and mounting reconstruction bills in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, and elsewhere.