Citing FDR's 1944 Bretton Woods conference as a model: 2015 will be a big year for global governance

[pampango]

- poverty, global warming, sustainable development and disaster preparedness/response.

Mary Robinson, a former president of Ireland, calls 2015 “the Bretton Woods moment for our generation”. In 1944 the small town in New Hampshire of that name hosted a conference which was to shape the post-war economic order. The open trading rules it established laid the foundation for decades of post-war growth and the “Bretton Woods twins” that it founded, the IMF and World Bank, still influence global financial governance.

Four UN conferences comprise the new Bretton Woods. Though they are unlikely to produce institutions that will matter in 50 years, if they go well they could boost growth and development in poor countries. If they do not, the only outcome will be windy and pointless political rhetoric.

The aims of the four meetings overlap. Climate change can increase the number and severity of disasters, and increase poverty since hundreds of millions living just above the poverty line risk being pushed back into destitution by a flood or epidemic. It is also linked to development because some of the most vulnerable countries are very poor, for example Sahelian states threatened by desertification and small island states affected by rising sea levels and ocean acidification. Conversely, though coal-fired economic development can reduce poverty, it also increases carbon emissions, thus contributing to climate change.

The original Bretton Woods conference established lasting institutions partly because its members faced a common enemy (Japan and Germany); shared a clear set of beliefs (that open markets were essential if economic nationalism was to be defeated); and were willing to take unpopular steps (such as lowering their own barriers to trade). But now rich and poor countries are divided, there is no consensus on how to tackle climate change and most countries are demanding that others, not they, should make sacrifices to strengthen the global economic system. The Bretton Woods moment is not doomed to failure. But seizing it will not be easy.

http://www.economist.com/news/international/21647307-2015-will-be-big-year-global-governance-perhaps-too-big-unsustainable-goals

It is wonderful to see FDR's Bretton Woods conference being cited as an example of international planning and cooperation 70 years after it occurred.