The UN and the Bretton Woods Institutions: New Challenges for the 21st Century

The vision of the founders of the United Nations, the World Bank and the IMF some fifty years ago contrasts sharply with the often weak and limited performance of the institutions they created. The 15 papers in this volume critically assess this record in order to set out proposals for strengthening and restructuring the institutions to meet the new challenges of the 21st century. The changes proposed emphasize human security rather than military security, poverty eradication, gender equity and new international mechanisms to offset growing global inequality.