Skip to main content

The Post-Cold War Trading System

Who’s on First?

With the end of the Cold War, the search for a new international and economic order has begun. In this comprehensive account, Sylvia Ostry provides a critical analysis of an international trade system in the throes of rapid and far-reaching change.

With keen historical awareness, Ostry examines the role of key economic power brokers, particularly the United States, in the reconstruction and reconfiguration of an international economy after World War II. She argues that U.S. policy efforts were so successful that they led to an unprecedented renewal of economic growth, living standards, and education levels in postwar Europe and Japan. Ironically, those same policy successes unintentionally fostered the relative decline of U.S. dominance on the world trade scene as the reduction of trade and investment barriers prompted friction and conflict between different kinds of capitalist systems.

Identifying the historical and legal issues key to postwar trade policy, Ostry has commandingly charted our economic course through the last half of this century and, perhaps, into the next.

"Sylvia Ostry knows this subject as few others do, both as a scholar of international trade issues and a major player in the ongoing negotiations that have created the rules of the trade game. The Post-Cold War Trading System is a fine summary of where we’ve been and where we ought to be going."—Peter Passell, economic scene columnist for The New York Times

330 pages | 11 line drawings, 39 tables | 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 | © 1997

A Century Foundation Book

Economics and Business: Economics--International and Comparative

Political Science: Diplomacy, Foreign Policy, and International Relations

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
1: The Sources of Convergence
2: Building the Convergence Club: Technology and Investment
3: The GATT House: Termites in the Basement
4: The Eighties: Pacific Prelude
5: The East Asian Challenge: A New Convergence Club?
6: The Uruguay Round: Renewing Multilateralism
7: Building the Post-Cold War Trading System
Notes
Index

Be the first to know

Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

Sign up here for updates about the Press