Globalism Ascendant, Regionalism Stagnant: Japan’s Response to the Global Financial Crisis

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 37-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mireya Solís

AbstractJapan’s response to the global financial crisis has emphasized global initiatives and downplayed the regional agenda, in sharp contrast with its approach to the Asian financial crisis. This rebalancing in Japan’s economic diplomacy reflects the greater political space that it has enjoyed at the global level since its long-held views on the benefits of flexible International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending practices and controls on volatile capital flows became mainstream. Meanwhile, at the regional level Japan faces stiff competition from China in shaping the regional integration agenda and unchartered territory in coleading a multilateral Chiang Mai Initiative. Despite its enhanced profile, Japan’s new globalism is uneven: it has made a very significant financial contribution to expand the IMF’s resources and to restore trade financing; but Japan has not played a major role in the debate surrounding the most pressing issues of a future financial architecture, such as tackling global imbalances and promoting foreign exchange-rate cooperation. Japan’s muted voice, despite its large financial commitments, reflects its difficult adaptation to the G20 summitry process, as well as political volatility at home, which prevents it from developing measures to deal with the global downturn.

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 1850228
Author(s):  
Wim Naude

The global financial crisis of 2008-09 has stimulated a number of re-assessments of global development. But after two years, not much progress has been made in dealing with the deep causes of the crisis. While it is better understood now why the crisis occurred, more progress is needed in terms of financial reform on the global level in order to prevent future financial crises. A remaining challenge is to strengthen the global financial architecture (GFA). This paper focuses on the GFA and its relationship to the global financial crisis. Recent reform initiatives are discussed. Strong resistance against re-regulation of the financial sector is noted, reflecting the general opposition of vested interests to GFA reform.


Author(s):  
Leah McMillan Polonenko

This chapter examines the challenges involved in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis and highlights important lessons for future financing of global initiatives. The 2008 global financial crisis provided a very important caution: global initiatives are only as good as their global conditions. The crisis had very real consequences for the education sector, particularly through the reduction of adequate funding. The chapter first considers the consequences of the global financial crisis to education, taking into account the role of foreign aid, before discussing the cases of primary education in Ghana and Zimbabwe. It concludes by suggesting some best practices for learning from the failures to education from the 2008 agenda.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilene Grabel

I advance three claims in the paper. First, the Asian and especially the global financial crisis occasioned discontinuities and continuities that are imparting incoherence to the global financial governance architecture and developmental finance. Second, the emergent incoherence is productive of development rather than debilitating. Third, productive incoherence can be understood most fully within a “Hirschmanian mindset,” that is, an understanding of social and regime change informed by Albert O. Hirschman’s key theoretical and epistemic commitments.


2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-32
Author(s):  
Slobodan Č Čerović ◽  
Marina Pepić ◽  
Pero Petrović ◽  
Stanislav Č Čerović

Abstract Modern economic and financial crisis has caused a significant reduction in trade flows, for the first time since the Second World War, so it is often referred to as the trade crisis. Despite many benefits and disadvantages of liberalization as key features of modern age, the current crisis has led to a reassessment of these positions affecting the introduction of protectionist measures and the strengthening of regional ties and alliances. The question that arises is how the future trade flows will look like and whether regional integration will prevail over multilateral and liberalized trading system. The financial crisis quickly became the economic crisis that hit all sectors. The first visible effects of the crisis were reflected in a sharp fall in trade flows, and conditioned drop in demand, which led to a fall in production and employment. The first reactions of numerous countries were protectionist measures in order to protect national interests. This again aroused debate between proponents of liberalism and protectionism, where the effects and the origins of the crisis favored the latter. Economic decision makers, faced with the pressing economic problems, tried to mitigate them (at least in the short-term) turning more to regional partners, and less to the world market.


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