Teaching Paper: Key International Organizations and Networks for Climate and Development Practice

IntroductionThis study aimed to map strategies for educating laypeople about health technology assessment (HTA). Although integrating community is challenging, the engagement of patients/public in the processes of HTA has garnered support and endorsement from international network agencies. Dissemination of information, educational empowerment, and training are vital to give individuals capacity to partake in the intricate web of processes actively.MethodsThis review considered studies addressing educative strategies to train laypeople on HTA, additionally mapping and summarizing relevant methodological papers from any international HTA agency. Four databases were searched for qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods study designs. The grey literature search included policy and practice documents from HTA and health organization websites. Two reviewers independently completed title and abstract screening before the full-text review and data extraction.ResultsThe main contributors to the production of knowledge about educating laypeople in HTA were the United Kingdom (40%), Spain (20%), and Canada (13%). Most studies included were conducted in the context of the United Kingdom (27%), followed by Spain (20%), and international networks context (20%). The main strategies included conference-like events (21%), the production of educational materials (18%), training (11%), and the use of plain language (8%). Furthermore, international HTA and health agencies have offered courses, and online training produced and made available online guidance materials for increasing laypeople’s participation in the HTA process.ConclusionsDespite the global efforts to educate laypeople on HTA, jurisdictional variations underscore the need for a more inclusive approach. Strategies like events, educational material production, training, and clear-language use offer diverse avenues for public engagement. International agencies’ commitment to courses, online training, and guidance reflects a collective effort to enhance public involvement.

The Baku Climate Conference (COP29) is intended to address the intensifying fragmentation of global climate governance by setting new collective quantified goals (NCQGs) for climate finance and discussing critical issues such as loss and damage funds. At the conference, significant divergences persisted among countries on core issues such as climate finance, energy transition, and carbon market mechanisms, as evidenced by the ongoing negotiations and challenges in reaching a consensus on new climate finance goals. This not only mirrors the intricacies of the global governance system but also highlights the longstanding conflicts of interest among different stakeholders. Despite the hurdles impeding multilateral cooperation, South–South cooperation and regional integration efforts are gaining traction. Regional initiatives continue to advance global climate action, albeit in a limited fashion. As a key actor in global climate governance, China has taken on a more significant role by actively leveraging multilateral frameworks to promote collaboration, as evidenced by its substantial contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and advancing green finance initiatives. Multilateral cooperation has been a cornerstone of China’s approach to climate change, as evidenced by its unwavering commitment to providing support to other developing nations and its leadership in global climate action. China consistently plays a constructive role in global climate governance, providing practical solutions aimed at fostering deeper integration within the global governance framework. The future of global climate cooperation hinges on the development of a more stable, just, and efficient climate governance system, as exemplified by China’s commitment to carbon reduction and its efforts to foster a fair and reasonable global climate governance framework.

In this article, we explore the challenges of global governance and the particular challenge presented by global data governance. We discuss a range of challenges to developing meaningful global governance institutions for regulating how companies and governments around the world manage and utilize consumer data. These challenges are compounded by their global nature and the complexities of Internet-based technologies. We argue that the following gaps exist for effective global data governance: (a) there is no overarching global framework for protecting consumer data, and it is partial and incomplete; (b) there is a lack of data protection for international data transfers, as much of the regulation that is being developed is not global in scale; and (c) new areas of data collection and use compound concerns to effective data governance in a globalized digital world. Moreover, we highlight important needs in terms of both global governance and impending challenges related to current and new uses of data. Any global governance framework should recognize the need for an iterative process where communication is ongoing between the necessary stakeholders. Agreements should incorporate common goals to maximize the potential development of global data governance norms. However, goals must remain flexible to the different data environments across nation-states while maintaining a global scope to ensure data protection. In addition, any agreement should consider the emerging challenges in this area. These challenges include new methods of data collection and use, as well as protecting individuals from manipulation and undue influence based on how their data are being used, processed, and collected.

Theories of global governance blossomed in the 1990's when multilateralism appeared to empirically back idealist and constructivist perspectives on global policy and international organization. A plethora of global policy frameworks, intergovernmental treaties and institutions influenced by global governance thinking came into existence until the political fallout from 9/11 marked an abrupt end of that phase and neorealism and neomercantilism resurged in global affairs. Today, global policy is challenged by unprecedented disorder, uncertainty, and complexity. Phenomena like climate change, pandemics, failing states, the creeping collapse of democratic governance and the rule of law, or forced migration, cannot be resolved by nation-state centric politics, defying multilateralism, or conventional policy design. This chapter explores the utility of learning from the evolution of global sustainability governance (GSG), which is characterized by resilience, flexibility, and adaptability, resulting in the largest regime complex in global policy, whose flagship are the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and apply those lessons to inform future policy research.

Global governance is no longer a matter of state cooperation or bureaucratic politics. Since the end of the cold war, advocacy groups have proliferated and enjoyed increasing access to global governance institutions such as the European Union, World Trade Organization, and the United Nations climate conferences. This special issue seeks to push theories of interest groups and international non-governmental organizations forward. We argue that the advocacy group effects on global governance institutions are best understood by examining how groups use and shape domestic and global political opportunity structures. The individual articles examine how, when, and why domestic and global political opportunity structures shape advocacy group effects in global governance, across global institutions, levels of government, advocacy organizations, issue areas, and over time. As special interests are becoming increasingly involved in global governance, we need to better understand how advocacy organizations may impact global public goods provision.

Research can and should play a substantial role in improving the mental health situation in low- and middle-income countries (in the following: non-rich countries), where the gap between burden of mental disorders and mental health resources is the largest (1, 2). Research-generated information is essential to determine mental health needs, to propose cost-effective and culturally appropriate interventions of an individual or collective nature, to monitor the process of their implementation, to evaluate the progress made, and to explore the obstacles that prevent recommended strategies from being implemented. The difference between the research information that is needed to plan the best possible services in a given setting and what is currently available can be called the research gap. All available indications are pointing towards the fact that the research gap is particularly large in the non-rich countries. It is known that mental health research publications from non-rich countries constitute a small proportion of the total research output on mental health from the world (3-5). This finding is in consonance with health literature in general (6-8) and in biomedical publications the gap between countries with low and high level of publications is widening (9). These latter findings, specially, serve as a grim reminder that inattention to inequalities will prove a severe handicap in the long run as skill and technological advantage have a self-reinforcing character. Not only is very limited research conducted in non-rich countries but the subject matter often does not answer population needs, e.g. if one follows the criterion of burden of disorders to decide on the priority for research, mental and emotional disorders as a whole (10) and affective disorders, self-inflicted injuries and mental retardation, specifically, are under-researched topics (11). In addition, new knowledge, when it exists, is seldom applied partly because of the fact that some excellent examples of research do not come to attention of policy makers and planners because of poor dissemination opportunities (12). The problems in conducting mental health research in low- and middle-income countries have been discussed by many authors (4, 12-15). A definite barrier is the low priority accorded to mental health in general and mental health research in particular. Equally important are limitations imposed by resources (e.g. funding, facilities, support staff), research capacity (e.g. trained researchers, technical support, peer network, co-operative endeavours, migration of researchers), and research environment (e.g. research culture, availability of time, incentives, bureaucracy, isolation from networks). Preferably, the research policy for a country could be developed in harmony with all other components of the national mental health policy and strategies, as research should provide to most components with the necessary scientific inputs, and with the baseline and evaluation data they require (16, 17). Research should also safeguard ethical principles in its origin (why has the research been done?), formulation (were consumers and other relevant stakeholders involved?), purpose (how the information will advance the state of mental health of the population?), target (whom will it serve?), and operation (how the rights of the individuals, families and communities will be preserved?) (16). Kleinman and Han (18) suggest that non-rich countries should focus on practical and cost-effective research methods and intervention-oriented research that can be employed across many areas rather than prioritizing research according to topics. They argue for the development of population laboratories that integrate epidemiological, clinical, social science, and biomedical research through interdisciplinary research teams and international collaborations. This type of research not only brings to light the mental health burden locally and its underlying social, economic, and political constraints, but it also enables the design and implementation of relevant policies. Patel (19) suggests that Health Systems Research model that emphasizes action-oriented research, planned in close collaboration with a number of stakeholders, and disseminated in a variety of formats targeted to different user groups should be utilized in non-rich countries. Towards reducing the research gap in non-rich countries, World Health Organization has launched an initiative called 'Research for Change' (11). The initiative is supported by a broad group of stakeholders including representatives of national research institutes and research councils, international research organizations, funding agencies and donors, editors of scientific journals, policy advisors and programme planners from non-rich and rich countries. Supporting scientific publications from non-rich countries is one of the strategies of the Research for Change initiative. Publications from these countries can obviously draw attention to mental health issues that are more specific to them. But, in addition, they can inform policy making on local, regional, national and international levels; mental health reform and practice, education and research in the field of mental health that could benefit non-rich and high-income countries alike, e.g. research in primary care settings in non-rich countries, could be very useful to rich countries with under-served populations. It should also be noted that publication activity is aimed at not only generating specific information and knowledge but also in further development of research training and skills that serves as an intangible capital. Perhaps more is gained from the publication process through the investment in education of researchers, improved research techniques and membership of professional networks in comparison with the actual knowledge generated in countries where research is still in its infancy. Furthermore, improvement in research and publication capacity stimulates demand for basic research knowledge as well as resources, techniques and data. Capacity strengthening in non-rich countries also indirectly benefits rich countries in terms of creating opportunities for collaborative research. The integration of researchers/authors into an international network also enhances critical abilities of researchers from non-rich countries and tends to correct ethnocentric biases and national focus. It is not being suggested that journals should lower their standards to publish more studies from non-rich countries; on the contrary, it is vital that publication standards remain high. Instead, researchers from these countries may be assisted to achieve the requisite standards in their research and its presentation. Journals could give priority to research coming from countries that have a limited research base, for example, by letting a higher percentage of papers from these countries pass through the initial screening to the full review process. Researchers can be helped to improve their submissions through careful assessment and detailed recommendations for revision and manuscripts can be further polished through technical support (e.g. language editing). Capacity building is key to changes in the long term. This could be done through mentoring, personal encouragement, courses and research collaboration. Support for editorial boards and reviewers of journals in non-rich countries could be provided in relation to journal management, editorial procedures, peer review and setting professional standards. This could be achieved through mentorship, twinning arrangements and training workshops. The example of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica serves as a case in point for some of the issues discussed above. It has carried a number of editorials discussing the theme of international psychiatric research (17, 20, 21) and in particular research in relation to non-rich countries (12). The journal also has the highest representation of non-rich country papers (16%), a proportion that was three times the average of other leading psychiatry journals (4). Acta also has a very low regionalization index (5) and it draws publications from all regions of the world (4, 22). This has been achieved through proactive and author-sensitive policies, e.g. extra rounds of editing for papers from non-rich countries, organizing courses on planning and designing psychiatric research projects and participating in international multicentre studies on an equal basis (23). Having a proactive policy for research publications from these countries has not in any way lowered the standards as suggested by the two-fold rise in the impact factor of the Journal over the last decade (23). While the initiatives of a particular journal contribute to reducing the research gap and deserve to be acknowledged, the need is for a broad-based and consensus-driven international initiative to make a real, substantial and sustained difference. Towards this aim, WHO recently (November 2003) organized a meeting entitled 'Mental Health Research in Developing Countries: Role of Scientific Journals' in Geneva with editors of top international and selected national journals to exchange ideas and explore ways in which editors can take this agenda forward. A fair degree of agreement emerged in the meeting and the participants issued a joint statement and a catalogue of ideas to galvanize action by individual journals and editorial and international organizations. The statement can be accessed from WHO website (http://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/en/final_joint_statement.pdf) and is also reproduced in this issue of the Journal (24). Individual journals are independent (as they should be) and differ enormously on their vision, objectives and preferences. The adoption of a uniform action plan by all journals is neither practical nor desirable. Hence, the Joint Statement (24) does not tell individual journals/editors what they should do. However, it does articulate a shared vision of the urgent needs, leaving specific action and timelines to the discretion and enthusiasm of the signatory editors and organizations. We believe that the Joint Statement is a landmark achievement in collaboration by editors publishing mental health research and this initiative has the potential to contribute to bridging the mental health research gap in low- and middle-income countries.

A SHIFT towards interest-driven, opportunity-based and more voluntary actions by combining bottom-up with top-down elements (Falkner, 2016).Interactive learning and experimentation at different levels of global governance have become highly important, and these complex global interactions are increasingly regarded not as obstacles but as opportunities for innovation and interactive learning (Sovacool, 2011).Global climate governance relates not only to the legal system of the climate regime but also to various public and private initiatives at different scales and across sectors.Scholars studying the complex multi-actor and multi-sector characteristics of the system have therefore begun to conceptualize global multi-level climate governance as an opportunity structure for the generation and diffusion of climate-related innovation.The topic of this special issues is climate governance within a multi-level and multi-sectoral global system.The work argues that global climate governance today aims essentially to activate the dynamic potential of each level of the global governance system, the level of world regions as well as the level of provinces and local communities.Horizontal peer-to-peer learning between countries, cities and regions, as well as vertical up-scaling of best practice, has created a dynamic of change.The cross-sectoral approach has become important as far as the mobilizing of economic interests (e.g. in the construction sector) and the use of co-benefits is concerned.This special issue intends to offer a better understanding of the nature and variety of, and linkages between, initiatives taken and governance functions delivered within the broader 'climate governance landscape ' (Betsill et al., 2015).It analyses various climate governance activities in the European Union (EU), India and China through a systemic perspective.The EU may be regarded as the strongest regional sub-system of the global system, although the BRICS countries of China and India play a comparable role, as countries both with a similar scope and with explicit multi-level climate policy activities.The systematic dimension of global climate governance is described in the introductory article 'Multi-level climate governance as a global system' by Martin Jnicke.The author analyses the potential of the global climate governance system, which is characterized by a multiplicity of access points and incentives for innovation and interactive learning.It is regarded as a 'multi-impulse-system', where the sum of even weak impulses from different parts of the system can play the role of a strong instrument.The global multi-level climate governance structure is also characterized by a specific global knowledge base and a global policy arena, allowing for climate-related agenda-setting and the mobilization of interests at each level.It is taken as an opportunity structure for ambitious innovation-based climate strategies based on interactive lesson-drawing from best practice.The lesson to be learned at all levels of the system is the potential for economic co-benefits related to the socio-technical system of clean-energy innovation and the global clean-energy market.The following article, 'The EU system of multi-level climate governance', by Martin Jnicke and Rainer Quitzow provides an overview of the regional structure of the global climate governance system.The authors understand the EU as a system where 'multi-level reinforcement' has been observed several times and which can be considered as a leader by example in global climate governance.They point to the fact that the EU has the world's highest share of green electricity and since 1990 has made the largest reduction to its greenhouse gas emissions.They attribute the EU's relatively successful performance in climate and energy governance to two main factors: (1) multi-level reinforcement and (2) the mobilization of economic interests at different levels of governance through low-carbon industrial policy.While the multi-impulse system has fostered

Reviewed by: Human Rights in Global Health: Rights-Based Governance for a Globalizing World by Benjamin Mason Meier & Lawrence O. Gostin Matheus de Carvalho Hernandez (bio) and Inga T. Winkler (bio) Benjamin Mason Meier & Lawrence O. Gostin, Human Rights in Global Health: Rights-Based Governance for a Globalizing World (Oxford University Press, 2018), ISBN 9780190672676, 614 Pages. Institutions matter. This is the key message of the volume on Human Rights in Global Health edited by Benjamin Meier and Lawrence Gostin. With a renewed and comprehensive vision of human rights after the end of the Cold War and wide-ranging calls for entering the era of implementation of human rights,1 the inextricable link between human rights and global health has become generally accepted. Global health issues demand complex solutions, solutions that depend on a range of actors. They depend on global health governance. The encounter between these two realms—human rights and global health—places international institutions in the center of dynamics, demonstrating their strategic role for the realization of the right to health. The volume's main goal is to evaluate the connections between public health, global governance, and human rights. It presents a vast array of international organizations based on a broad understanding of global health, ranging from the WHO, to organizations in the UN system, to organizations focused on economic governance, to the UN human rights system. While States remain the primary duty-bearers for the realization of human rights, international organizations have a significant influence and such a wide definition of global health governance is appropriate for the multilevel and multi-stakeholder nature of the issue. It acknowledges that a broad range of organizations (including those whose mandate is not originally linked to global health) indeed have an impact on global health.2 The result of this immense analytical effort is a volume with over 600 pages, five sections, and twenty-four chapters that bring together forty-six authors, including many key experts in the health and human rights field. The first section provides the theoretical, historical, and conceptual basis regarding the relevance of human rights for global health, especially the rights-based approach to health. Chapter Three defines global governance for health as "the structures and methods of governing public health through multi-level and multisectoral institutions, including the actors and norms that define global health in an increasingly globalized [End Page 1045] world,"3 and discusses the role of human rights in influencing these governance processes. The section concludes with a forward-looking chapter on the need to reform global health governance in order to realize human rights in the sustainable development era (and the SDGs also feature prominently in other chapters). The second section is devoted to the World Health Organization (WHO) as the main specialized agency for global health. The authors explore the political and internal constraints and resistance to rights-based approaches inside the WHO. The section also assesses the current Gender, Equity, and Human Rights mainstreaming processes and analyzes the strategic position of the WHO in the future of global health governance. The third section discusses the different approaches of the UN agencies, funds, and programs to mainstreaming human rights into global health. The chapters are dedicated to analyzing each organization (UNICEF, ILO, UNESCO, UNFPA, FAO, and UNAIDS) within their respective mandates and their efforts to promote a human rights-based approach to global health. The section demonstrates how these UN entities have been seeking (with different levels of success) to implement Kofi Annan's appeal to mainstream human rights in all their practices. The final forward-looking chapter of the section (Chapter Fourteen focuses on the role of organizational partnerships for health and human rights. As it is impossible to delink human rights mainstreaming from development cooperation, the welcome fourth section goes beyond institutions that consider global health as the core of their mandate and approaches global economic governance institutions and funding agencies. The chapters critically discuss the role of these institutions in integrating human rights into their recommendations on economic reform and poverty reduction. Following an introductory chapter on the integration of the human rights-based approach and the right to development into global governance to health, the...

Objective. The purpose of the article is to generalize and analyze the existing strategic guidelines and modern management practices for the sustainable tourism development, proposed by international organizations and associations. Methods. To achieve the goal, such research methods as literature review, substantive bibliometric analysis, data visualization were used. The review of international tourism organizations reports was used to identify, collect and analyze data on modern strategic guidelines and management practices for the sustainable tourism development, as well as their critical evaluation. Results. The initiatives of international tourism organizations to manage the sustainable tourism development are summarized and analyzed. It was determined that the most systematic approach to substantiation of strategic guidelines for the sustainable tourism development is inherent in the World Tourism Organization, which carries out its activities according to certain issues in seven directions, namely: increasing energy efficiency and use of renewable energy in hotels; monitoring the sustainable development of tourism at the destination level; resource-efficient use in tourism; simplification of tourist trips; stopping the loss of biodiversity and promoting the preservation and restoration of the environment; fight against climate change; launching a global plastic tourism initiative. The analysis and generalization of the existing strategic guidelines and modern management practices for the sustainable tourism development, proposed by international organizations and associations, allows us to conclude that the optimal recommendations for the sustainable tourism development should: 1) be aimed at the optimal use of environmental resources; 2) respect the socio-cultural authenticity of the host communities; 3) ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits for all stakeholders.

Private actors and their interplay with public actors in global governance have become a prominent focus of global governance institutions and research alike. The last decade has witnessed a remarkable growth in the number of private actors in global governance and an increase in public-private partnerships, multi-stakeholder initiatives, informal coalitions between states, NGOs and business partners, and the emergence of private self-regulatory mechanisms. With their problem-solving capacities stretched thin in the wake of globalization and denationalization, states and international organizations began to reach out to the private sector and its resources. Private actors have been brought in to set and locally implement international regulations and have contributed to the provision of collective goods. Lately the private business sector has become a prominent partner of governments, international organizations and NGOs in areas such as environmental problems, labour and social standards, and human rights more broadly. The sheer growth in the number of private actors in global governance is astonishing; equally dramatic is their changed role within the governance initiatives. While their role was initially confined to functions such as agenda setting in the input phase or norm implementation and evaluation on the output side of global governance, it has since expanded to include core decision-making, taking part in all phases of the policy-making process.

This paper proposes a theoretical account of institutional transformation and the emergence of order in global inter-organisational relations, which is centred on the concept of “metagovernance”. It does so by theorising on the advent of governance architectures in global health governance—relationships between international organisations (IOs) in this field that are stable over time. Global health governance is routinely portrayed as an exceptionally fragmented field of international cooperation with a perceived lack of synergy and choreography between international and transnational organisations. However, our paper starts from the observation that there are also movements of convergence between international organisations. We seek to explain these by looking at the effects of international norms that define good global governance as <em>orderly and harmonised </em>global governance. We conceptualize such norms as “metagovernance norms” that are enacted in reflexive practices which govern and order the relationships between international organisations. Empirically, this paper traces changing interactions and institutional arrangements between IOs (World Health Organization; World Bank; Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria) in global health governance since the late 1940s and shows how patterns therein reflect and (re)produce broader discursive perceptions of what “health” is about and how the governance thereof ought to be organised.

To obtain some factual information on the flow of news in Asia from events to readers from international wires to newspapers and readers and the 2-way circulation between developing and industrialized countries the study was planned to include 5 components of measurement and analysis: local and national news content of 18 Asian and daily newspapers 1 English language and 1 native language daily for each of 9 countries during 1 week in December 1977; content of the international news agencies wire services delivered to Asian clients during the same week in December 1977; foreign news content of the 18 Asian dailies with particular reference to what was selected from the international wires; readership of a sample -- the number depending on what was affordable -- of the Asian dailies; and Asian news in a sample of First World dailies number again dependent upon finances. The study answers both quantitative and qualitative questions: the basic pattern of news flow; local and national news in the Third World dailies; what the international news wires carry; what the Asian dailies take from the international wires; what people read in an Asian Third World daily; the coverage of development news; the distribution of coverage; the news from China and India; coverage of 2 major events; news from Malaysia; and coverage of some national leaders. The circulation of news in Third World Asia cannot be understood or assessed totally in terms of the international news agencies or any other single element in the process. It is far too simple to approach the problem of news circulation by regarding the Asian media as the only aggrieved parties and the international agencies as the sole offenders. For one thing that excludes 1 of the most important elements in the process the readers. The international news agency wires carry a great deal more foreign news -- from the Third World as well as the industrial countries from Asia as well as countries outside Asia development news as well as other types of news -- than even the most distinguished and prosperous dailies of Asia can or do print. The daily prints more a great deal more than any of its users read. The news agencies operate under a number of restraints imposed by their clients and the clients readers and also by the nature and task of their resources. It has been observed that the international news agencies do try to serve the needs of their clients in Asia and are most likely doing a better job quantitatively than qualitatively.

International Public Goods and Agency Problems in Treaty Organizations

This paper analyzes the extent to which international public goods and agency problems are present in international organizations. A noncooperative model of the funding choices of donor countries and the subsequent policy choices of an international agency is used to develop hypotheses about the behavior of ideal and problematic international agencies. The analysis suggests that international agencies are likely to be underfunded and undermonitored relative to that which maximizes the joint interest of signatory countries. The funding and policy implications of the model are tested using data from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The statistical results suggest that (i) treaty obligations affect behavior of Annex 1 and non-Annex 1 countries, (ii) GEF’s allocation of grants generally advances the international environmental agenda, and (iii) significant free-riding and agency problems exist in GEF as it is presently organized. Overall, the empirical results suggest that treaty organizations may be relatively effective, if not perfect, instruments of international public policy.

The role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in the economic development of Argentina has aroused a considerable amount of controversy. However, as Raúl García Heras states in his deeply researched book, we lacked a fully elaborated historical account based on archival records of the relationship since 1955 between the South American nation and the two most important international financial agencies. García Heras offers in his work a rich empirical analysis based on an impressive array of sources, such as the archives of the IMF and the World Bank, British and American diplomatic records, private papers from important Argentine economic policy makers, and many others. His main thesis is that the IMF and the World Bank have played a major role in Argentine development, since both institutions became the final guarantors of Argentina’s economic seriousness, conditioning in that way the nation’s access to international financial markets. Moreover, the IMF and the World Bank interventions in Argentina were guided by a version of economic orthodoxy that ultimately ended in failure.García Heras renders a complex account of the relationship between the IMF and the World Bank’s bureaucrats and Argentine politicians. He argues persuasively that the commitment of the IMF to reform Argentine economic policy was to some extent related to the international agency’s search for a propaganda victory and use of Argentina as an example to show the world. However, the importance of Argentina for the IMF might be overestimated due to the particularly “Argentine-centric” perspective adopted by the author. In fact, the rich sources employed by García Heras should have allowed him to establish broader connections and a more qualified view. I believe García Heras does not fully explore the consequences of the IMF and the World Bank being truly global agencies with global agendas and at the same time having a particular relationship with the United States.The author accurately emphasizes the link between IMF influence and Argentina’s difficulties in dealing with European creditors (the so-called Club of Paris), but he misses some other, no less fundamental connections. For example, in the “Preludio,” García Heras underlines several conditions that prevented Argentina from joining the IMF at the end of World War II. Most of these conditions were related to the internal situation of Argentina and in particular to Juan Domingo Perón’s nationalistic regime. Thus, a little-known attempt to establish relationships between the international financial agencies and Perón’s government failed due to the fact that “Peronism did not have the political strength, the managerial capacity, the technical cadres, and the ideological conviction necessary to deepen that reorientation” (p. 18). But nothing is said about the place of Argentina in the global design envisioned by the Allies and the United States after the war, and how this was related to the international financial system. Moreover, the very attempt of Perón’s government to obtain aid from the international agencies deserves further attention.The overall impression is that the IMF and the World Bank were monolithic structures. García Heras sometimes notes the internal disputes among bureaucrats but he does not consider the possibility of evolution within these institutions. For instance, apparently the shift from Eisenhower to Kennedy, from the rhetoric of “trade not aid” to the “Alliance for the Progress,” did not influence IMF attitudes and policies. This might be so, but a discussion about the reasons for the persistence of practices and ideas would not have been out of place.The problems of a lack of historical contextualization beyond Argentine borders arise more clearly at the end of the book in the analysis of the 1966 – 69 period. García Heras argues that this was the end of an era, but the reasons for that are not obvious. Was it due to the “Cordobazo,” the social turbulence that put an end to Krieger Vasena’s period in charge of Argentine economic policy? Or was it due to Argentina’s temporary break in dependence on IMF aid? Or perhaps to the referred “upheavals in capital markets that foretold the end of the monetary and financial system established since 1945?” (p. 179). By heeding a broader historical context, García Heras might have offered alternative explanations for the relationship between international financial agencies and Argentina and the differences that he mentions in his conclusions — contradicting his portrait of the IMF as stubbornly committed to the same policies — between the not “so orthodox” attitudes of the fifties and sixties and strict orthodoxy in the aftermath of the Washington Consensus.Nonetheless, and despite its flaws, El Fondo Monetario offers in-depth historical research that will enhance our understanding of both Argentine recent history and the debatable interventions of international agencies in Latin America.