The Great Regression? Financial Crisis in an Age of Global Interdependence

Abstract:

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the dynamics of the global financial crisis and the challenges it poses for governance across the board. This is followed by detailed accounts of the way in which key international and institutional relations have been strained by the crisis with potential ramifications for the global distribution of power, focusing on relations within the European Union, Russia’s relationship with the West, and China’s relationship with the United States.

Rather than addressing the speculative debate about recovery models and economic outlooks, the report focuses on how political-economic relations between countries, the fabric of globalization, have been tested by the steep economic downturn. It seeks to assess whether the numerous potentially destabilizing factors of the financial crisis have indeed nudged international relations onto a substantially different path than previously assumed.