The World Economy

Abstract

In the previous lecture we looked at the United Nations as the principal institutional expression of modern interdependence and the leading vehicle of the ‘New Diplomacy’. The range of its activities is wide, the range of its deliberations and concerns wider still. It is apparent that the United Nations, however much reformed or restructured, is unable on its own to manage interdependence. There is an enormous amount of business which must be transacted internationally yet which, for one reason or another, cannot be handled by or through the UN. As was explained at the end of Lecture 1, a practical means of assessing this requirement is to look at the reality of the world economy and the arrangements which governments need in tackling it.