Regional and Economic International Organizations - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Many people lived lives of total despair. However, there were a number of brave men and women who decided to look at this crisis as an opportunity and to fashion something new out of the mess. The most important change to make involved the world economic system. And so the Bretton Woods regime was founded on July 1944, in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, by the delegations of the 44 Allied nations with the intent of creating a new financial and economic order, due to the shift of power occurred as a result of the Second World War. The Bretton Woods regime was a result of the events which affected the world economy and political system, starting from the great Depression to the rise of Nationalist dictatorships and finally the Second World War; its declared objective was to ensure prosperity to all nations, so conflict would never occur again, and can best be understood by this quotation: "The nations should consult and agree on international monetary changes which affect each other. They should outlaw practices which are agreed to be harmful to world prosperity, and they should assist each other to overcome short-term exchange difficulties." The lesson learned by the horrors of the war were that increased economic integration would stand a good chance of reducing the opportunities and incentives to go to war. If war cost the same amount to everyone there would be few advantages for any one country to start one. Economic integration and some standardization would be key to this. The policy of open markets first seriously pushed at this conference would have a major influence on the world economy to this day.
This policy however did not come out of the blue. There were a number of significant individuals who came up with the theories and principles that underlay and who worked hard to guide the process forward. Without a doubt one of the most important of these figures was the economist John Maynard Keynes, one ...Download file to see next pagesRead More