Includes bibliographical references (p. 365-370) and index.

List of illustrations
Preface to the paperback edition
Acknowledgments
List of abbreviations
Introduction: The fragile global economy
The second great age of capitalism
The Cold War international economy
The insecure trading system
The unstable monetary system
Global financial vulnerability
Age of the multinational
European regional integration
American economic strategy
Asian regionalism
Globalization and its discontents
Managing the global economy
Notes
Selected bibliography
Index

Many individuals proclaim that global capitalism is here to stay. Unfettered markets, they argue, now drive the world, and all countries must adjust, no matter how painful this may be for some. Robert Gilpin, author of the widely acclaimed Political Economy of International Relations (Princeton, 1987), urges us, however, not to take an open and integrated global economy for granted. Rather, we must consider the political circumstances that have enabled global markets to function and the probability that these conditions will continue. Gilpin's new book amounts to a magisterial inquiry into all major aspects of the contemporary world political economy. Beginning with the 1989 end of the Cold War and the subsequent collapse of communism, it focuses on globalization and rapid technological change and covers a broad sweep of economic developments and political cultures.