Global governance institutions, from the International Monetary Fund to the International Olympic Committee, are little loved. They are perceived as bastions of sclerotic mediocrity at best and outright corruption at worst, and this perception is generally not far off the mark. In the wake of the 2008 financial crash, Daniel W. Drezner, like so many others, looked at the smoking ruins of the global economy and wondered why global economic governance institutional had failed so spectacularly, and what could be done to reform them in the future. But then a funny thing happened. As he surveyed their actions in the wake of the crash, he realized that the evidence pointed to the exact opposite conclusion: global economic governance had succeeded. In The System Worked, Drezner, a renowned political scientist and international relations expert, contends that despite the massive scale and reverberations of this latest crisis (larger, arguably, than those that precipitated the Great Depression), the global economy has bounced back remarkably well. Examining the major resuscitation efforts by the G-20 IMF, WTO and other institutions, he shows that, thanks to the efforts of central bankers and other policymakers, the international response was sufficiently coordinated to prevent the crisis from becoming a full-fledged depression. Yet the narrative about the failure of multilateral economic institutions persist, largely because the Great Recession most affected powerful nations whose governments made poor decisions in the management of their own economies. Also, the most influential policy analysts who write the books and articles on the crisis hail from those nations. Nevertheless, Drezner argues, while it's true that the global economy is still fragile, these institutions survived the "stress test" of the financial crisis, and may have even become more resilient and valuable in the process. Bucking the conventional wisdom about the new "G-Zero World," Drezner rehabilitates the image of the much-maligned global economic governance institutions and demolishes some of the most dangerous myths about the financial crisis. The System Worked is a vital contribution to our understanding of an area where the stakes could not be higher.

About the Author
Daniel W. Drezner is Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a contributing editor at Foreign Policy. He has previously held positions with Civic Education Project, the RAND Corporation, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He is the author of four previous books, most recently Theories of International Politics and Zombies.

Reviews
The System Worked is a smart, thoughtful, and important book that I largely disagree withDrezner has put forward an argument to be reckoned with, and it is more important that the book find an audience among those who disagree with its conclusions. * Jonathan Kirshner, Boston Review *
Drezner offers a thoughtful and contemporary analysis of global governing systems and their underlying politics. * Nancy Cook, National Journal *



Book Information
ISBN 9780195373844
Author Daniel W. Drezner
Format Hardback
Page Count 278
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 499g
Dimensions(mm) 159mm * 241mm * 24mm