This book brings together two major developments of the past decade: the collapse of the Soviet Union on the political side and "globalization" on the economic side. It shows that both of these drastic changes resulted in an increasing demand for regulation and guidance by international organizations, which on their side feel an increasing pressure for adjustment to the changed international agenda.

This book argues for a new conceptual framework that analytically distinguishes between North-South monetary co-ordination, which involves an international key currency, and South-South arrangements between economies all marked by external indebtedness and the resulting macroeconomic instabilities ('original sin'). In this light, the book analyzes different types of monetary co-ordination, ranging from ad hoc exchange rate policy agreements to projects of a common supranational currency, and it examines selected regional cases in Eastern Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia.