Globalizers

Ngaire Woods is a Tenured Fellow at University College, Oxford, and Director of the Global Economic Governance Programme at Oxford University. She is the editor of The Political Economy of Globalization and Explaining International Relations since 1945 and the coeditor of Inequality, Globalization, and World Politics.

• Introduction1. Whose Institutions?2. The Globalizing Mission3. The Power to Persuade4. The Mission in Mexico5. Mission Creep in Russia6. Mission Unaccomplished in Africa7. Reforming the IMF and World BankReferencesIndex

After World War II, the winning powers created the IMF, to bring stability to the international monetary system, and the World Bank, to channel investment into development and reconstruction projects. Woods examines both institutions and how they have preformed these roles in regard to underdeveloped borrower nations. She chronicles the involvement of the IMF and the World Bank with Mexico, Russia, and sub-Saharan Africa. In a very balanced analysis, she shows that both institutions have failed in many instances to improve the lot of such countries, too often promoting policies to please their powerful shareholder nations such as the United States while failing to understand and deal with the special needs of borrower nations. She concludes by recommending six reforms for the two institutions to make them more open and equitable in their advertising and lending.(Library Journal) Perhaps mirroring public debate on the issue, scholarship on the role of the IMF and the World Bank in economic development has often treated these institutions as mere conduits of U.S. interest. In The Globalizers, Ngaire Woods seeks to amend this perception, offering a rich account of their activities that emphasizes the inner workings of these institutions and their negotiations with policymakers in developing countries. As such, The Globalizers provides an invaluable look at the processes that shape the IMF and World Bank's role in the global economy.(International Studies Review)