Are the Bretton Woods institutions reformable?
1. Alex Wilks opened by stating that he believed that the Bretton Woods institutions were reformable. However, he said it was important to ask ‘In response to whose agenda?’ and ‘Who benefited?’. The people who drew up the plans for the World Bank and IMF – Harry Dexter White and Maynard Keynes – envisaged multilateral institutions in the true sense, making funding decisions based on neutral, analytical criteria. However, it rapidly became clear that the US planned to take charge, and this situation continued. Reform could take place, but would need US support. It was interesting in the current context that the US Treasury Secretary asked his senior adviser to develop the proposal for new international financial institutions just one week after the Pearl Harbour attack. The US was shocked out of a period of isolationism into military and institutional engagement with the world. Would the same happen again? 2. US influence on the IMF and World Bank was certainly not all malign (they had
