The Subtle Art of Compromise and the International Financial Architecture

Can the Current Framework Sustain the Politics of Globalization?

Abstract

In this essay, the argument is embraced that the most serious limitation of the international financial architecture is its dubious ability to cope with the everchanging political and diplomatic dimensions of the interconnected economic systems of our contemporaneity. Simultaneously, the key characteristic of the workings of the international financial architecture (i.e. a widespread reliance on soft law) is not looked at as a shortcoming in and of itself, but as a consequence of the balancing between political discordance and the necessity to find compromises for the benefit of the world's population.