Recent cgirs_gpb items

Can multilateral institutions be made publicly accountable?

Sun, 6 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Multilateral organizations, by definition, are formally accountable only to the nation-states that ostensibly share in their governance. This is not enough to hold multilateral organizations publicly accountable, especially when nation-state power within them is very lop-sided, when some are quite insulated, and when they respond to non-state actors only at their discretion. In this context, what kinds of institutional reforms can help multilateral organizations to become more publicly accountable?

Reforming the global financial system

Wed, 9 Apr 2003 00:00:00 +0000

The global financial market has been shaken throughout the nineties by a series of major financial crises. Attempts to stabilize the global system have led to large bailouts. This system cannot survive indefinitely. The willingness of taxpayers in the industrialized (OECD) countries to engage in continuing bailouts is approaching its limits.

This paper has two goals. First, it briefly summarizes the evidence that financial crises may be induced by opening up developing countries to short-term capital inflows. Second, it appraises the various proposals made for mitigating the severity of financial crises.

Explaining the appeal of Islamic radicals

Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Why do “Islamic radicals”—including the partisans of al-Qaeda and other followers of Osama bin Laden--enjoy so much sympathy in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world?

This Global Policy Brief explores four socioeconomic roots of Islamic radicalism:

- The multidimensional crisis of the Muslim world

- The rage of the young, a majority of the population in the Middle East, are faced with poor livelihood prospects

- Increasing poverty and collapsing cities

- Failures of government.