IMF, World Bank, and Emerging Powers
By Dr Ali Burak Güven
In an article published in the journal New Political Economy, Dr Güven illustrates how the Big Seven borrowers of the World Bank (Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey) have successfully realigned their engagement with the Bank in line with their strategic preferences. (“The World Bank and Emerging Powers: Beyond the Multipolarity–Multilateralism Conundrum”).
Another article by Dr Güven, published in International Affairs, the flagship journal of Chatham House, traces the mechanisms by which the IMF and the World Bank cope with the normative, operational and competitive challenges arising from global power shifts, finding that the twins’ ad hoc adaptive efforts do not amount to a cohesive strategy. (“Defending Supremacy: How the IMF and the World Bank Navigate the Challenge of Rising Powers”).
Taken together, the two pieces suggest that growing multipolarity effects more changes in these behemoths of Western multilateralism than meet the eye, although there remain critical gaps in both representation and policy design.