The story of how African societies are resisting financial dependency and colonial legacies

Winner of the 2010 Hayek Book Prize given by the Manhattan Institute "Money, Markets and Sovereignty is a surprisingly easy read, given the complicated issues covered. In it, Mr. Steil and Mr. Hinds consistently challenge today's statist nostrums."—Doug Bandow, The Washington Times In this keenly argued book, Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds offer the most powerful defense of economic liberalism since F. A. Hayek published The Road to Serfdom more than sixty years ago. The authors present a fascinating intellectual history of monetary nationalism from the ancient world to the present and explore why, in its modern incarnation, it represents the single greatest threat to globalization. Steil and Hinds describe the current state of international economic relations as both unusual and precarious. Eras of economic protectionism have historically coincided with monetary nationalism, while eras of liberal trade have been accompanied by a universal monetary standard. But today, the authors show, an unprecedentedly liberal global trade regime operates side by side with the most extreme doctrine of monetary nationalism ever contrived—a situation bound to trigger periodic crises. Steil and Hinds call for a revival of the political and economic thinking that underlay earlier great periods of globalization, thinking that is increasingly under threat by more recent ideas about what sovereignty means.

The concept of state sovereignty is increasingly challenged by a proliferation of international economic instruments and major international economic institutions. States from both the south and north are re-examining and debating the extent to which they should cede control over their economic and social policies to achieve global economic efficiency in an interdependent world. International lawyers are seriously rethinking the subject of state sovereignty, in relation to the operation of the main international economic institutions, namely the WTO, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The contributions in this volume, bringing together leading scholars from the developed and developing worlds, take up the challenge of debating the meaning of sovereignty and the impact of international economic law on state sovereignty. The first part looks at the issues from the perspectives of general international law, international economic law and legal theory. Part two discusses the impact of trade liberalisation on the sovereignty of both industrialised and developing states and Part three concentrates on the challenge to state sovereignty created by the proliferation of investment treaties and the significant recent growth of investment treaty based arbitration cases. Part four focuses on the domestic and international effects of international financial intermediaries and markets. Part five explores the tensions and intersections between the international regulation of trade and investment, international human rights and state sovereignty

Is it true that the forces of technology and interdependence have undermined the sovereignty of modern states? This book argues powerfully that the opposite is true: that over the past quarter century the major industrial states - the US, Britain, France, Germany and Japan - have mostly used these forces, often in novel ways, to pursue national purposes. The nation-state framework has, over that period, remained the basis of legitimate political authority and law. There has been a huge increase in the scope, incidence and detail of state regulation to manage, among other things, both the domestic economy and the effects of transnational flows. International management almost invariably depends upon state consent. The power of the state has never, anywhere, been absolute and its methods of management have always been changeable. But there is no evidence that its managerial effectiveness has, overall, been less in 1995 than in 1975 or 1965. This book therefore takes strong issue with much of the literature on interdependence and international organisation which has appeared in recent times. It is especially useful for those trying to understand the larger framework within which business must operate or the sources of authority for anyone's plan to manage problems of financial or population flows, of transnational conservation problems or of trade. The book will also be of particular use in graduate and senior undergraduate courses in international relations or organisation.