Abstract

The international monetary and financial system plays a central role in the global political economy (GPE). This work examines how the contemporary system is still shaped by many legacies of the Bretton Woods monetary and financial order established in 1944 and the political priorities of its architects. That order has also undergone several pivotal transformations. An important gradual change has been dramatic globalisation of financial markets since the 1960s. A more sudden one was the abandonment of the Bretton Woods gold exchange standard in 1971. The dollar standard that replaced it faces a number of challenges in the contemporary era. Also significant have been the breakdown of the adjustable peg exchange rate regime in the early 1970s as well as regionalization and decentralization trends.