At the conclusion of World War II, several international institutions
were created to manage the world economy and prevent another Great
Depression. These institutions include the International Monetary Fund
(IMF), the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now
called the World Bank), and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), which was expanded and institutionalized into the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in 1995. These institutions have not only persisted for
over five decades, but they have also expanded their mandates, changed
their missions, and increased their membership. They have, however, become
highly contested. As Stiglitz notes, “International
bureaucrats—the faceless symbols of the world economic
order—are under attack everywhere…. Virtually every major
meeting of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World
Trade Organization is now the scene of conflict and turmoil.”Helen V. Milner is the B. C. Forbes Professor of
Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and the
director of the Center for Globalization and Governance at
Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School ([email protected]). She has
written extensively on issues related to international trade, the
connections between domestic politics and foreign policy, globalization
and regionalism, and the relationship between democracy and trade policy.
Her writings include Interests, Institutions, and Information:
Domestic Politics and International Relations (1997),
Internationalization and Domestic Politics (co-edited with Robert
O. Keohane, 1996), “Why the Move to Free Trade? Democracy and Trade
Policy in the Developing Countries” (International
Organization 2005), “The Optimal Design of International Trade
Institutions: Uncertainty and Escape” (coauthored with B. Peter
Rosendorff, International Organization, 2001). The author thanks
David Baldwin, Chuck Beitz, Robert O. Keohane, Erica Gould, Steve Macedo,
Lisa Martin, Thomas Pogge, Tom Romer, and Jim Vreeland for invaluable
comments. She also received much useful advice from seminars at Princeton
University and the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and
Conference Center.