The Meaning of Multilateral Surveillance
Strange, Susan. “The Meaning of Multilateral Surveillance.” In International Organisation: World Politics: Studies in Economic and Social Agencies, edited by Robert W. Cox, 231-247. London: Macmillan, 1969.
Taking the relationship between debtor and creditor countries as her starting point Strange argues that multilateral surveillance is not as draconian as it is presented. She notes that military expenditure is seldom included in the requests for debtor country adjustments. Despite the international economic organisations’ role, states were still able to manipulate their creditors through political pressures. Interestingly, Strange notes with great prescience that while at the time states could still play this role, with the continuing internationalisation of money markets (and the emergent technologies that made such developments possible), this would in the future present a strategic problem for states’ governments. The approach she favoured was for the reduction of indebtedness to be borne not by the deficit countries but rather by the surplus countries. That is, the solution to the debt crisis was not more adjustment in the ‘Third World’, but was some form of debt forgiveness.
Keywords: International Institutions, Money and Finance