Bretton Woods Institutions & Neoliberalism: Historical Critique of Policies, Structures, & Governance of the International Monetary Fund & the World Bank, with Case Studies

In July 1944, delegates from forty-four allied nations gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The meeting resulted in the creation of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development ("IBRD"), and the International Monetary Fund ("IMF"). This book demonstrates that current Bretton Woods Institutions' ("BWI") policies must be fundamentally redesigned, since many are archaic, and others are counter-productive to integral sustainable development in the current global economy. Further, the book argues that the dominant nations in the BWI have forced their political agendas on the rest of the world, while hiding behind the veil of these multilateral global financial institutions. The book concludes that the BWI, due to their lending policies and governing structures, have restrained authentic global development. It also proposes alternative strategies for authentic sustainable development through other multilateral global institutions.PROFESSOR MARK J. WOLFF is Professor of Law at Saint Thomas University School of Law in Miami, Florida. He also serves as Legal Counsel and Board Member, Malta Projects of Southeastern Florida, Inc., an affiliate of the American Association of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta. In addition, he is General Counsel and member of the Board of Directors of Pax Romana-USA, and of the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Institute at St. Thomas University, as well as a Faculty Advisor for the Center for Ethics at St. Thomas University. He formerly served as an International Vice President of Pax Romana / International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs, and as Main Representative of Pax Romana at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. He also founded and is Director of the St. Thomas University School of Law's United Nations Externship Program, at United Nations Headquarter in New York City. Currently, he as an Adviser to the Permanent Mission of the Order of Malta to the United Nations Headquarters in New York. In the past, he has served as a member and head of delegations on behalf of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta at United Nations World Conferences and International Consultative Conferences, and he has addressed the plenary sessions of these Conferences and the General Assembly of the United Nations.