Ikenberry: A World Economy Restored

GJ Ikenberry, “A World Economy Restored: Expert Consensus and the Anglo-American Postwar Settlement,” International Organization 46, no. 1 (1992): 289-321.

How was it possible for the post war international economic order to emerge from the chaos of WWII? This article explores how British and American experts found areas of consensus in order to push forward a vision of the world that was neither emphasized old imperial economic orders or entirely free trade.

"I argue that the policy ideas inspired by Keynesianism and embraced by a group of well-placed British and American economists and policy specialists were crucial in defining government conceptions of postwar interests, building coalitions in support of the postwar settlement, and legitimating the exercise of American power. By shifting the focus from trad3e issues, which were highly contentious, to monetary issues, about which there was an emerging 'middle ground' created by Keynesian ideas, these experts helped overcome political stalemate both within and between the two governments. Put simply, this group of British and American experts intervened at a particularly fluid moment in history to help the British and American political establishments identify their interests, thereby creating the basses of postwar economic cooperation" (291).

Ikenberry goes on to list seven key features of this group of policy experts and the context in which they were making decisions.

"The group of economists and policy specialists involved in the postwar settlement, however, did not fully constitute an epistemic community, nor did the manner in which these experts influenced the terms of the settlement conform to the strict logic of epistemic community influence that is proposed elsewhere in this volume" (293). Firstly, this was not a scientific community affecting policy, but a group brought together in the interest of solving a problem. Secondly, the ideas of the group were not as homogenous or as deeply rooted in tenants of a theory as would be the ideas of an epistemic community. Thirdly, this group did not drive policy adoption, but rather, political needs drove the selection of this group.

This story is then told in great detail and I skimmed it.